Wiseguys

Wiseguys when I was a skinny eight-year-old boy I knew him as Willy Shoes it was Brooklyn in 1950 and some men had strange names reflections of personality deed or look he and his friends never seemed to have jobs but gathered on corners played cards in social clubs always friendly always polite Willy Shoes was handsome with large dark Mediterranean eyes dressed to the nines silk shirts pegged pants gold cufflinks and alligator belts jet-black hair combed into a perfectly Brylcreemed ducktail and pompadour you could see your reflection in the high gloss of any pair of shoes from his infinite spit shined collection Wille liked me hey kiddo he would say here’s a buck take this here envelope and give it to Thomazula the bootblack one day when I was about seventeen I saw a picture of Willie Shoes on the front page of the New York Post handcuffed and trying to hide his face with a neatly pressed pin-striped suit jacket Willie “Shoes” Sansone it said charged with the murders of eleven gangland figures and I remember wondering if he would let me have a few pair of his fancy shoes while he was away...