Growing Up in Astoria, Queens

A true story of growing up in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Queens, New York. Astoria where the people worked long hard hours six days or sometimes six and a half days at very little pay and no benefits.

Where drinking was done on a regular basis and the bars were filled every weekend. Domestic violence ran rampant in those days and was never to be considered a crime.

My role models were usually men who smoked, drank, and got into fights since that is what I was used to being around, not to mention the influence of money and the easy way to obtain it which certain people knew how to do.

A place where you learned to take care of yourself and become hard or the streets would chew you up and spit you out like you were a piece of bad meat.