Why does man constantly drive for more
It is sure that God made man to care for all living things
By all of Gods teachings can man be greater
If he takes more for himself than he really needs
~ Gemini Joe ~
B
eing older, my brothers got to do things without me. One day, I saw them digging in the dirt outside.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We’re looking for worms, stupid,” Victor said.
“Yeah, we can’t catch fish without worms,” Dom added.
“I want to come,” I cried.
“No, you’re too young.”
I sat on the front steps and watched them walk down the block, wishing I could grow up fast so they’d take me with them.
I have to give my brothers credit because in the years that we had the big driveway and parties, they came home with bushels of fish, crabs, and eels. Today people catch one fish, or two, and they can’t believe there was abundance at the bay at one time.
I waited for them to return with the fish. It was getting late and my dad started to set up picnic tables and benches in the driveway.
“It’s your job to get the dishes,” he said.
I ran upstairs. “Pop wants the dishes,” I told Mom. I’m helping. It’s my job.”
Carefully holding onto the plates, I walked down the stairs. “Here they are,” I said, and smiled.
“Don’t just stand there, Joey. Put them on the table and then get the forks.”
After setting each plate out, I ran back upstairs.
“Pop needs forks.”
With my hands full of silverware, I ran back down and set them around the plates. “Now what?” I asked.
“Get the napkins.”
This time, I didn’t run and wondered why my father didn’t ask for the napkins when I went up for the forks.
My brothers were coming up the street with their buckets and nets. I was so excited. When they reached the house, they opened their sacks and dumped the fish onto the sidewalk.
They were good, my brothers. They loved bringing their catch home and my dad was fascinated.
“Stand back, “Dad said. He put the eels back in the sack, and beat it against the stoop. This stunned them long enough for him to cut off their heads.
I felt sorry for them, but they sure tasted good after my mom sprinkled them with flour, and fried them up for dinner. I loved the way they puffed when she put them in the hot oil.
My sister didn’t like it because she had to wash all the fish. She was scared of the crabs, because she thought they would bite her.
“Why wash them,” she said. “Eat them the way they are.”
My mom said, “We have to wash them.”
Dolly would give up after a few and my mother had to take over.
The neighbors came over to see what the Finnos caught. She would put one eel and six crabs in a paper bag and each neighbor got theirs. It was great!
A large pot of sauce simmered on the stove while water in another pot boiled for spaghetti. When the sun went down, my dad turned on the lights that crisscrossed from the house to the garage, and Mom, put the radio on the kitchen windowsill. Italian music played while the adults drank wine and we ate. The neighbors heard the celebration and walked by.
“Come on in and have something to eat,” my Mom and Dad said. “We have plenty.” They were good that way. Everyone was welcomed to the Finno house.
At the end of the night, I helped my mother bring all the dishes back upstairs and my brothers helped Dad put the picnic tables in the garage until the next week.
Janet, I am trying to narrate this so that you could be walking with your dad, a little boy with a runny nose, long sweater, and big shoes. I hope that this will put you right there with my family in the driveway celebrating food and life.
The next Saturday morning, Victor and Dom packed up to go fishing.
“I want to come.” I cried. “I can help!”
“What can you do?” Dom asked. His eyes shot toward Vic. It’s strange how twins have an unspoken conversation between each other. My brothers were like that.
“Okay, you can come,” Victor, said. “But you have to carry the gear.”
“Oh boy.” I ran up the stairs to tell my mom that I was going fishing with my brothers.
“I don’t know,” she said, unsure if she should turn me over to them, but I was so excited.
“Okay, but be careful,” she warned.
I ran back to my brothers, who were waiting to pile on the fishing gear. Once Victor loaded me down, we headed to the train station.
“Come on,” they called to me as I struggled with the bucket, rods, and nets. Happy to be included, I didn’t complain. When we got off the train in Coney Island, I did my best to keep up with them as they walked on the boardwalk toward the pier. Victor kept going, but Dom ran back and grabbed the rods and bucket.
“A lot of help you are,” he said and ruffled my hair.
“Come on, before someone gets our spot,” Victor yelled over his shoulder.
As Dom baited a hook with a worm, I watched intently. “Can I put a worm on the hook?” I asked.
“No, stay out of the way or you might get a hook in your eye,” Dom said.
I remembered how he had lost his eye at thirteen. When he was a young boy, he was chopping firewood to sell to an old lady in the neighborhood. Winter wood burning stoves in Brooklyn were hungry for fuel and he had wanted to make some money selling firewood. Going door to door to get orders, he’d rushed back to his chopping block when he had a sale. In his haste, he became careless and hit the wood with the axe. A nail came up and shot into his eye. The doctor told my mom that he couldn’t save it, and she cried. Dom was fitted with a glass eye. From that day on, he didn’t act so tough.
My mom was so upset. Today they could do something about it, but in those days, they just removed it. It was a downer for him because now, he only had one eye. I poked at the squirming bait with a stick. My brothers caught one fish after another. Dom removed the hooks from the fish’s mouths and put them in the bucket of water, but Victor ripped out the hooks and threw the fish aside, letting them flop around on the pier. Blood flowed from their mouths. I wanted to save the fish, and when he wasn’t looking, I kicked some back into the sea.
By the end of the day, there were so many fish in the bucket I could barely lift it.
“We lost enough fish for one day,” Dom said. I’ll carry the bucket.”
I didn’t like fishing after all, but I did love the water, especially the beach. Victor and Dominic taught me how to swim. When my dad wasn’t looking and they threw me off the boat. They said kick your arms and legs, keep your mouth shut or you are going to drown. Anyhow, I learned how to swim.
