The Great Escape!

Irony I am up and out early as we are on our way to MSKCC in the City. We’ll get some more information about how we might “escape?”   My best RS

It was around the late 1920s early 30s. I belonged to the Van Nest Steamrollers. We were a bunch of kids from the Northeast corner of the Bronx. Stuck between two railroads. On the west the New York Boston & Westchester. Never heard of it eah? We called it the Bankers road. It whisked those folks from Westchester County non stop through the Bronx to the financial district. The Steamrollers got our licks by throwing rocks at the trains. Needless to say the bankers never even looked up. The Railroad went down with the depression.

On the east side of Van Nest was The New Haven Railroad. It still there as the Metro North. The Catholic Protectory was right across the tracks. It stood where the Housing Project Parkchester now stands. The Protectory was a boarding school for bad boys, like me. As I was in trouble for so many years in PS 34 I lived in terror of being told that they would put me in the Protectory.     (Pssssssst  I had a knapsack all packed with food and carfare to get me across the river to New Jersey. From there I would hitch my way west. Actually it never happened.)  Back to the Escape. On weekends we were invited to play baseball against the Protectory team. Every time our team walked through the gates play Protectory  I’d be a nervous wreck. Feared, once in, they might never let us out. Especially me with my extended family of radicals.. Like an old medieval fortress this whole place had a 8-10 foot wall all around it for two square blocks. It was designed to scare . Man it sure did.

On one Saturday afternoon we were somewhere’s around the 7th inning. The Steamrollers were ahead by a couple of runs. I managed to get to 3rd base through a walk a single and so on. As I slid into the base I knocked the 3rd basemen over. We are both sort of lying there. Yet he is talking a mile a minute. “look bud we need to get out of this fucking place. We’re really getting worked over in here. Ten lashes for this, 20 for that stuff like that.” Man, now I’m listening. “We gotta get outa here or we’ll die before we even grow up. So, your gonna help us?”  “How.”  No there was no, well we need to think about it, stuff like that.” In my world of Anarchists, Socialists, Communists etc. people in trouble by an oppressor had to be helped.  “So what do you want us to do?”

Get some good rope, like wash-lines about 100 feet long. Twist them together so that they can pull a 150 pound guy over that wall right behind 3rd base. 7 o'clock tonight you through the cord with a brick on the end over the wall.  You got make sure it’s secure on your end so as the guys start to come over the chord line will hold. So far I got about ten guys signed up. Heah by the way what’s your name? Mine’s, Fassanell Ralph. Mine’s Robishe Italian for Robert or Bob. Okay we’re on for tonight. As I was walking off the field I noticed one of the priests who was umping on 3rd base trying real hard to hear our conversation.

As the Steamrollers walked home along the New Haven tracks I began to get nervous that I had to much confidence in our end of the caper. So, I started my recruiting. Whose gonna collect wash lines?  That was easy. Just went to the lots behind the houses where the lines were strong and started to take them out. Whose coming along for the toss over the wall and the pull to get the guys out that assignment got increasingly difficult to fill. Now it became this is the toughest part of this thing so you gotta show what your made of. The agreed on time was after dinner around 6PM. Oh man now we had to synchronize the only two watches the rescuers could lay their hands on. Perry came with an Ingersohl  $ Dollar watch. Whenever it stopped you took it back to an Ingersohl dealer and for a buck he gave you another one. Vinnie was our last recruit as a puller. Vinnie went on to be a wheelman for the local Mafia. Ended up doing time in Sing Sing. (How’d a prison ever get a name like that?) 

We had our own whistle system.3  blasts was abort and get lost. This required real knowledge of the surrounding neighborhood particularly the New Haven train lines schedule. You often had to recruit your own support system. Ralph was a funny and interesting character.  He projected a complete optimism in what we were doing and just assumed it would all workout.

Okay so here’s the appointed hour. John, he was our best Pitcher is the rope brick thrower. He’s gotta get it over that wall or the whole things a bust. Perry. me and some other guys are the pullers on the rope to help the prisoners” climb over that wall to “freedom.” Man, we were so excited none of us could stand still long enough to blow your nose. No, we were collectively trying not to pee in our pants.

Okay, so here’s the agreed on synchronized watch time. Over the wall goes the brick with plenty of rope with it. Sure enough there’s two tugs on the rope. That was our signal to start pulling. We are gathering rope beautifully when over the top of the wall. no you wont believe this comes a Priest blowing his police whistle like crazy. Not sure, I think it was John who picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in the priest’s face. With that we were outa there across the Railroad tracks with the rush hour trains going in both directions. We had agreed to rondayvou in my backyard. Everybody showed up but Perry. Now we were worried. Perry had very strict parents if they even got a whiff of what he was up to it would be a sad day for him. 

Here comes Perry his pants all bloody between his knee and his crotch. What happened?  What happened? guys are all yelling at once?  “Got caught on a barb wire that some dumb son of a bitch tried to put across a track entrance. Heah Robishe i can’t go home like this. You got a pair pants i could use?”   Of course of course.  Has it stopped bleeding? “I think so.” Now I’m sneakin around the house finding bandage Iodine stuff like that. My cousin Mildred comes to our rescue. She sees what’s happening. Says don’t worry we’ll pin him up so nobody will know the difference.

We get Perry home and of course he has to make up some fairy tale about he was bike riding and crossed the tracks got caught between trains running in opposite directions on and on and on. Of course his father doesn’t believe a word of it. Perry doesn’t know why but he just dropped it. Day after our Escape Caper there’s a story in the Bronx Home News of the local kids who got caught trying to help kids escaping the Catholic Protectory.  Good story as it did talk about some of the terrible conditions the boys have to put up with. This was many years before the priest abuse scandals that the church has been forever trying to sweep under the rug. Ralph used to tell me, there were some priests who were just great guys. Just like out here Robish. Some good some bad. Like that Robish.