Between Roxbury and a Hard Place
Growing Up During the Great Depression 1932 to 1943
by
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“Look who’s here, the new fairy on the block, and he wants to play too. What do you think of that?” he sneered. Without further ceremony he waded right in to beat me into a sobbing mass of quivering flesh, and again I ran home crying to mother. “Vy are you fightink? I kip tellink you not to fight!” She carried on with this classical Jewish mother refrain while she ministered gently to my bloody nose and shiner. I went to my bedroom to sulk. I hate that Manny. Tomorrow I’ll find new kids to play with. I’m not going to let him do that to me again.. The next day after school, I went down the front steps and turned left towards Hartwell street to find some other playmates - but the boys there were teenagers. As I walked back I was scared because Manny might beat me up again. Maybe Manny will change his mind. Maybe he won’t want to beat me up again. Maybe the other boys won’t laugh at me. Maybe - maybe he will beat me up. I shuddered. My fear grew as I found myself at the corner of Segel Street. I saw the boys playing further up the block and although I was trembling, I walked toward them. I was quivering from head to toe and I wondered whether they could see how frightened I was. They stopped playing and Manny once again came toward me, smiling derisively. “So the little boy wants to play again.” He moved face-to-face with me. When Manny poked me on the chest with his finger, it was as though he hit the release button on a heavily loaded spring. I became a blur of flailing fists, elbows, knees, and feet and for about one and a half minutes, Manny received a beating the likes of which he had never seen, or given or imagined. Towards the end of the fight, the other boys dragged me off Manny’s chest for fear that his bloodied head might be fractured against the sidewalk from which it was bouncing with each blow. This time it was Manny who ran home screaming to his mother. I was still quivering from head to toe and tears of rage streamed down my face as I gathered myself together after the fight. I had not received a single blow other than that first poke. The other boys backed away from me as I glared angrily at them but his time they were not laughing at me. As I wobbled my way home I was greateful that the others could not see how my knees were shaking inside my baggy knickers..- - - Within minutes after the fight, the entire under-twelve population of the area knew that the new pint-sized kid had beaten the daylights out of the neighborhood bully and had gotten away without a scratch. Fortunately they didn’t talk about the previous beatings! Manny recovered with minor permanent marks and I acquired immense respect and prestige in the neighborhood. My reputation was such that I was never challenged or had another fight during the entire seven years that I lived there.
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About the Book
Growing up during the Great Depression and coping with a father deserting the family is what Gerry faced at the age of seven. His childhood experiences and good luck helped him survive WWII. After a number of humiliations by a neighborhood bully who was much bigger than he, Gerry managed to beat him badly. The reputation seven-year-old Gerry got from that fight meant that he never had another fight the entire several years he lived in that neighborhood. He applied that lesson in the infantry during the war.
Josh, an observant Jew, and Gerald became close friends. They discussed precociously every subject imaginable at great length, and by the time he was thirteen, he was an avowed atheist with a very strong philosophy of life.
When he was attacked by four anti-semitic hoodlums, he beat them by surprise and the cover of this book gives an unsubtle clue as to how he equalized the fight on the following day. That technique also was used in France where it probably saved his life.
Gerry took a course to become a machinist which got him a job at the Charlestown Navy Yard where together with the South Boston Yard, they launched a ship every day. The incredible pace of construction during WWII resulted in many casualties. Gerry nearly died twice.
During the summer of ’43 at Winthrop Beach he had a love affair with Erna and they became engaged to be married after the war.
About the Author
The Great Depression and a broken home shaped the early life of Jewish Gerald Factor. After surviving WWII with the help of some of his childhood lessons, Gerald earned his engineering degrees in Massachusetts and then had a gratifying 30-year aerospace career. Now, in southern California living with his wife, he enjoys writing and photography.