Lodi
(The monologue for the video)
While Albie didn’t mean to lead Boxer and his gang to me under the rail bridge
That’s what he did.
Boxer wasn’t brave enough to come in after me.
So he sent Albie instead.
To tell me, Boxer wanted to beat me up
I always figured as my older brother, Albie ought to protect me
So did Poppa
Albie didn’t see a point in fighting
I called it cowardice
He called it common sense
Albie blamed me for making Boxer want to beat me up
He said I acted high and mighty
I said I wouldn’t let Boxer pick on me the way he did everybody else
Albie said that’s the way things are in the old neighborhood
We lived in Lodi then
Lodi was a rough place
A beehive of Italian Immigrants shoved together in a landscape of mutual need
I hung out under the arch of an old railway bridge because I wanted to be alone
I always felt restless
And wished I could escape Lodi
The way Frank Sinatra had escaped Hoboken
Maybe if Poppa had let me join the army at 16
I might have turned out all right.
By the time I came of age,
The war was over and the Army didn’t want me.
Albie said Boxer was boss and I should learn to accept that fact
I said Boxer was boss only because he had his gang around him all the time.
Without the gang, Boxer was as big a wimp as Ablie was.
Albie said Boxer wanted me to come out from under the tracks and take my lumps
I said we could lick Boxer and his gang if we did it together.
Albie said if I apologized Boxer wouldn’t beat me up as bad
I knew that if I let Boxer beat up Albie, Poppa would kill me.
So I went out and took my lumps.
But all these years later, I still haven’t forgiven Albie.