Sunday, January 3, 2010

The Feast Of San Rocco: 1935


Knickerbocker Village is about one year old
From Joe Bruno on the Feast in the 1970's:
They resurrected the St. Rocco Feast in the mid 1970's. I had to throw all the cars out of my parking lot for 10 days.
They put the rides, and gambling booths in my parking lot, and instead of paying me, they gave me 4 soda spots in the one block feast on Monroe St.
Two spots came with the Pepsi trucks we could sit inside and serve from. I ran one truck with my ex-wife, my father ran the other with Fat Julie (my step mother). The two other stands, which had to be built with wood, I gave to my friends Anthony Alvarino, and Ray Williams.
The feast was a dud. We made balls selling sodas. Nobody showed up except 4th Warders and a few 6th Warders. We were on the TV news, but still no action.
I really took a beating, shutting the parking lot down for 10 days.
I figure I lost a few grand in monthly rents. I had to pro-rate everyone's rents to deduct the 10 days customers couldn't park.
The good news was that I had great fun for ten days. Getting drunk every day. Sometimes twice a day.
After a few days of making no money, we made the best of a bad situation. My father and I had bottles of booze in our Pepsi stands that we gave away to all our friends, which meant basically everyone in Knickerbocker Village.
Buy a Pepsi, get a shot of booze for free. Or two. Or more.
Of course, one year was enough, and the disaster of the St. Rocco Feast was never repeated.

No comments:

Post a Comment