Show BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET Moes Moe's Biggest Catch Found Rose Dangling on on His Line D. D BILLY I V D ROSE I D. D BILLY I V D ROSE I By Among Arnone the doodads on my desk is an old piece of string wrapped around a wooden spool pool and people who come to my office often quiz me about it My ro rough gh ready and routine answer is Im I'm fond of that bit of string because thanks to it my business address is Sixth Avenue instead of Davy Joness Jones's Locker But let me crank the reel reet back 44 years and give it to you you you-as as my Aunt Frieda would put it It la in sequins I The scene I 1 remember most vividly vivid ly on the East Side Is the dock near the Fulton Fish Market where we used to go swimming on summer sum um mer men days when school was out and the tide was in tn And the waterfront waterfront water water- front character who usually takes stage center in my memo memory is a little ragbag of ot a man we called Crazy Moe who spent pent most of his days da Bm DUl filly Rose Itne spool pool over the edge edeo of ot the pier We often otten pointed out to this In- In angler that he was wasting wast waste lag ing his time that no seu self respecting flounder would be caught sauteed In the polluted waters of ot the tho East Eat River but River but Crazy Moe Mae paid no attention at to us Ills His answer when be bo bothered to answer at all aU all was that lie he didn't much care about catching anything be anything he just jus liked to fish And Andas Anda Andas a as nearly as a. we wo could tell teu he be never even took the trouble to b ban bait U his bit hook hock ONE DAY A BOY DOY named Terry the most promising juvenile delinquent delin delta quent on Avenue A swiped a mackerel mackerel mackerel mack mack- erel from a fish stand dove off oU the dock when Moe wasn't looking and hooked the fish onto his line And when the tho fetched one began to pull in la his catch his hands bands shook so violently that the tho fish looked alive on Dc 0 bt I could get gel Sl to so Ih tbt lb J llon how however 0 out ons o of Ih tbt kU kids grabbed tbt Ih m out oar of o ohis tit his bund band and nd b backed dd itt its bid 11 oil of wilb wilh a i. i Cr Crazy Mot MOl tt ar ui as or III for jive Ii min min- e and II it wasn't besot bt J. wasted IJ to So and mount mesas tbt Ih ib tt h. just juit wanted to So throw the tb poor thing back There Thero was another day when this same Terl Terry decided It U was time timo I learned how bow to swim and when I tried to ward him off aU with the wily dialectics of ot a seven old year year old he began calling me sissy isa and yells yella ella belly Finally realizing there thero was no way to dodge the dunking I stripped tripped down to my shorts horts Ter Terry and another kid Idd grabbed bold hold of me gave lavo me m. a cou COli- pIe of ot hammock swings and pitched me into the river I landed ker ker- splash between a grapefruit rind and a floating bottle and water be gan rushing into me from every opening S e e AS I 1 WAS GOING down for tor the second time I somehow got tangled up in a bit of string and when my head broke water I l saw Crazy Moe Mae standing on the dock hauling in his second me fish-me and I was darned near as dead as the first one The line Une of ot course wasn't strong enough to do more than keep me afloat but It ft gave Terl Terry a chance to live dive in and pull pun me over to the ladder Alter After I had recovered breath and bravado I asked Cras Crazy Craty Moe to let me have bave his fishing tine line for a k keepsake and nd When he demurred I bribed l It awa away from Win him with what was WI an Important Piece of ot mone money In n those days days a new Liberty Head nickel iJ later Today many mry decades decade and cui later th the piece of ot of string string tring occupy occupies a prominent place among the me me- mentor on my sort desk of ot a mute reminder er of the time when m my We hung by a hair And my favorite mermaid who of ot course knows thi this her ber story says It wh why I married Y You wanted a s swimmer Dimmer In 10 the lamU family says Eleanor because the next time they the throw you OU In in there ml may not be b. a Crazy Moe 1100 around hanging |