Ever since I was a young boy...
I hung out in juke joints and bars...
I watched da men play da biff machines...
Drinkin’ Dixie beer and smokin’ cigars...

My favorite hangout was Eddie Price’s...
On Broadway, one block off Freret...
If I was lucky, I’d see a fist fight...
It was the most excitement a kid could get...

My mother didn’t know my whereabouts...
She would have whipped me had she known...
That her kid was hangin’ in bars...
Where broken beer bottles were often thrown...

It’s not that I was kinda delinquent...
It’s not like I was out stealin’ cars...
I just got a thrill from the exhilaration...
Of watchin’ grown men fightin’ in bars...

I shoulda been playin’ baseball...
Or being an altar boy like da other kids...
But I can’t think of anything more fun....
Than watchin’ men brakin’ other guys ribs...

Sometimes I would steal a guy’s bottle...
When he was all caught up in his game...
I would down it like nobody’s business...
And I would feel absolutely no shame...

Oftentimes I would leave the bar tipsy...
And struggle to get back to my house...
I would have to sneak in my back door...
And be as quiet as a drunk mouse...

This went on for most of my childhood...
But then one day Eddie Price’s was closed...
It was turned into a preppy college bar...
And da biff machines were properly disposed...

Now, when I stumble down Broadway...
And pass da place where Eddie Price’s once stood...
I look at da kids and I says to myself...
“Well, dere goes da neighborhood!”

© 2021 Jeffrey Pipes Guice