STREET BLOOD

                      What's happening beautiful people? Its a sunny day in southern California so i decided so send some sunshine to you with a great story. Last Sunday an old friend of mine from the old days came by for dinner, his name is Keith Conty. I've known Keith for about 35 years along with his younger brother Glen who in fact, I was tighter with. Keith is a couple of years older than me and was very cool to me when I was growing up.
                     At one point of the night the conversation turned to his brother. He said that in reality Glen had always considered me more of a brother than Keith. I could see the hurt while he was saying it but it was true. Glen and I had met when we were both 13 while we played hoops against each other in a 13 -15 year old all star game. We immediately gravitated to one another and when ever we'd see each other we just laugh.
                     Freshman year we ended up in Algebra together. He was a great football player as was Keith and I was a hoopster so we really avoided drugs except for reefer. Sophmore year my mom passes and he starts dating this wild chick named Regina. She like to party so he started to party. He needed dough and I needed dough so we partnered up and started selling acid, microdot, blodder, 4 way, drops, if it was out there, we had it. We would go up to East Strousberg State in Pennsylvania. There were these 2 chemist kids that were nerds but they had the shit down. We started selling 'Ups" aka Black Beautys and Qualludes and believe me we weren't doing bad. We sold about 500 hits of cid a week, 200 qualludes and a 1000 ups, business was booming and all we had to do was go to school to sell it, what a scam.
                Senior year Cocaine hit and we got involved in that too. We would go to 135th and Amsterdam and get 8 balls for 200.00 then cut it sell it and that was that. We had it going on. We also got into burglaries and drug rips. A ounce here and a pound of weed there. People stated talking and we started to get a little rep. Here we are 18 years of age and we thought we were bigshots. Glen was smart in a way because he got a job to keep up appearances. I was stupid I wouldn't listen.
               The Summer following graduation was amazing. We robbed everything that wasn't locked down. We were involved with a Mob Loan shark who would finance bigger deals for us for a percentage. We had a guy that worked att an appliace store who would tell us about trucks coming in and we would hit them at night for a few air conditioners or refrigerators. We were still selling coke but not the other stuff we had passed it on for a percentage but most importantly, we were out everynight partying big time.
              We were always together. We ate together, we lifted together, we talked about our lives but in all our business dealings we never crossed each other, we really breathed for one another. We would get shaken down by cops for info and in all those years Glen and I never said anything. We had a bond stronger than a brothers bond it was a street bond. We kept hanging till about 85' when the bubble busted. My demon was the drugs, his was the gambling. Without an argument or a misunderstanding we went our own way. We came to a crossroads. He had a daughter with some girl and got promoted to a driver for UPS and his life changed. I moved to Colorado and still kept in touch.
           When I moved back in 94, we would see each other from time to time but our criminal enterprise was over. Even though we were apart I still heard reports about his gambling and I knew I was still snorting. So things hadn't changed that much. I got into Comedy and he raised a child. In 2003 I was in New York shooting "Analyze That" and someone mentioned him so I asked if he had his number? I got the number and called Glen to say hello. He answered and for a minute was happy to hear from me. He took a moment to tell me that his life had changed and that he wanted to forget about his chldhood. He said the things we did were bad. He didn't hate me but he wanted me to respect him and never to call him again. I was shocked but I understood. He told me he loved and and he said God bless you and that was that.
       I got off the phone and I was hurt for a minute and then I understood. I never contacted him again and to be honest I'm not mad. We came across each others lives when we both needed each other and we came through. I have never experienced that level of friendship while we were doing our thing. We were running in the minor leauges of the Mafia and a thousand things could have happened but we always had each others back.
      People could be rich and have a thousand things but this bond we had you can't buy, its a trust knowing that I'm going to be fine. People fake the funk but Glen proved it to me and I saw it. I wish him the best and thank him for some great times but especially for shining a light in my life when it was dark, the same light I shined on him at his time. Thank you for your time and for reading. Have a great week and a great Cinco De Mayo but most important.............Stay Black!