mom

Las Vegas - Heading into the WAY BACK machine for some crazy, wacky and wonderful gambling stories. Used the word tapioca in an earlier column, and one of our readers, Dave/The Mush, hit us with this Email. Talk to me Dave...

'Also familiar with the expression/word tapioca (which means TAPPED OUT). Brings back old memories, real old, as a teenager hiding from a BM (bookmaker). That was when you called an answering service and left the number you were calling from (phone booth or landline phone), and added 3 numbers to the last number. Oh, you asked for Mr. Blue, then they say give me your number and he will call you back. Mr. Blue calls the answering service. He asks are there any calls for him and he deducts 3 numbers from the number the answering service gives him. He calls you and then you have to give him your code (mine was Dolphin 378). Then you do your business. So, when you were tapioca and didn't have the money to pay, the BM would start calling the numbers you called from (school, home, phone booths, friends house). Ah, the good old crazy days. My friends and I used to go to Belmont/Aqueduct/Jamaica race tracks during day, then Yonkers, Roosevelt and Monticello at night. Then we would play cards on yachts at the Hewlett Yacht Club on some rich boys daddy’s ships. We were from Far Rockaway, Queens and attended Far Rockaway High School. Not FANCY-DANCY Hewlett or Lawrence area schools. But it was nice to dream. Nice talking to you again. Dave/The Mush. Lol.'

Actually brought back a memory for me as well. Me and my younger brother, Little Eck, or, is it, my younger brother and me, were in the hole to our bookie, lets call him Tony TWO TOES, for like $800 and change. Or as Tony would say, your new address is 800 W. 27th Street, and it's DOWNTOWN. The 800 was eight hundy and the 27 was the small dollar amount. If you got an address downtown, you're bringing an envelope full of cash to the settle up. An uptown address and you're collecting an envelope from your guy. Once asked TWO TOES what happened to his other three? He told me the story was WAY too long and WAY TOO BLOODY! So, I was in the first year of college (1969), little bro' was a junior in high school, and $800 bucks back in the day was like $5,000 to us. So, we go the bank, yea, to a teller, and scrape the cash out of our accounts. We lived in Woodside, Queens at the time, on 69th street between Northern Boulevard and 32nd Avenue if anyone asks. My memory was a little hazy, but brother Phil told me we were to meet at a shopping center on 76th Street. We were walking to the meet, and started to get a little queasy. So, we decided to RUN. Tore it up running back to our apartment, NEVER bet with TWO TOES again, and stashed the money in our top drawer. And I KNOW that we were not the only ones to run from or avoid paying a bookie, so DON'T judge me, or, my brother. Our new motto is, we owe, we pay!!!

And to all the PHENOMENAL Moms out there, or in my case, UP there, Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!

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