51萝莉

My View

When I finished high school in June 1960, I saw three future choices: to attend Philadelphia鈥檚 La Salle College (not then a university); pursue a blue-collar job at the huge General Electric plant located in my neighborhood; or what was my first choice, pursue numbers running. The latter meant working in illegal gambling under the direction of Guido, the local 鈥渨ise guy鈥� bookie.

My top goal was soon derailed. Guido authoritatively reduced my options by demanding I go to college. 鈥淔or heaven鈥檚 sake Joey, you鈥檙e one of the first around here to ever get admitted to college, so why would you throw away that opportunity?鈥� Guido argued. 鈥淏esides, you鈥檒l be a representative from us people in the real world! You didn鈥檛 have no silver spoons growing up so you could be a role model. You could inspire kids from this neighborhood to reach upward. And what a difference you could make as a teacher or a principal for kids who grew up like you did. So forget about running numbers.鈥�

Guido stopped by my house on a steamy summer night, and I filled out my acceptance confirmation from La Salle in front of my mom and dad and Guido and mailed the packet. The three adults were jubilant. I was depressed and felt like I was trapped on a shaky tree limb.