In more ways than ever you were like the family pet- huge, noisy,slept on the floor and kinda hairy. We gave you our mom and she accepted you and your brothers with open arms. We gave you our Beverly and for many years we thought you were married, actually you were but it was to getting high.
My greatest adventure ever was with you walking home, trying to hitch hike on the New Jersey Turnpike from Giants stadium.
Crossing a field to get there we came across a swamp. We sank in- up to our belts. It was a processed slime of chemicals, Hackensack river water, oil and fermenting mush. A smell I, nor the state trooper that picked us up on the side of the road will ever forget.
He had us. Nailed. “”It’s a 500 dollar fine for hitchhiking on the turnpike boys, you know that? Right?” And then he added “Each!”
Is Guess he was taking us in and then..until… “Whats that fucking smell!!!”
So he dropped us off outside exit 13 in Elizabeth and said get the fuck outta my car. If you want to hitchhike do it before the toll and not on the highway.
This was November 4, 1979. Roger Staubach rallied the Cowboys past the Giants with just two minuets left. It hurt. This game went thru our hearts like a pear. Giants were winning the entire game until the last seconds.
We were so drunk, disappointed and bewildered that we couldn’t find the car we came in in the parking lot. We were with several other dudes and now they were gone.
So I said Lets just walk home. It’s only four exits.
On November 4th 2019, exactly 40 years later I was sitting in the same seats, same two teams on the field, except my son Jonathan was sitting next to me. In the tailgate after the game I told him about getting stuck in the mud with Jonny-Boy. Exactly 40 years later…how life had changed.
Jonny Boy was a good man. Not just because he laughed at all my bad jokes but because he had a huge heart. He was a giant friendly black bear. Sure he liked to party but that was all everyone did back then. The last time I ever saw him he was living in Elizabeth right after 9/11. He told me that tons of people gathered on a dock in front of Newark Bay and they could see the catastrophic developments taking place on the New York City skyline. He told me the skies were filled with smoke and there were F-14’s zooming up and down the bay.
