John Adams High School - Clipper Yearbook (Ozone Park, NY)

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KENNY PAPPA n ca guy GLORIA MOREA SURE YOU must have known h1m Papa Benny Imean He was Papa to everybody on De Kalb Avenue It all started many years ago when Papa Benny opened up a small shoe repalr store From then on all h1s l1fe went mto and came out of that n1ca 111la shoppe It wasnt one of those sp1c and span shops you under stand Because you see Papa was al ways one for atmosphere Besldes that he drdnt beheve 1n domg today what he could do tomorrow So the scraps of leather stayed where they fell and the fmlsha and gotta be gmna shoes were shuffled together on the dust laden counter and h1s bottles of dyes and sta.ns were al ways open for the sake of atmos phere And the ash trays wh1ch flanked each srde of the royal shoe shme chalr were never emptled b cause to h1s mmd the number of butts ln the trays gave a touch of b1gga busenessa to the place On days when the butts d1dnt make too grand a show hed add a few just to bal ance the books He became a combmatron Dons Blake to us klds and a Mr Anthony to our folks Papa Benny was obsessed by two thmgs 1n l1fe-atmosphere and a good show or brgga fronta For h1s own personal front Papa Benny sported a canary yellow and bnck red plald vest wh1ch he set off wlth a cool1ng green pr1nt bow t1e In summer h1:1 Panama and 1n wmter h1S roller derby fplus an all year Havana clgarl added the last touch of ele gance On sweltenng summer days when we klds would head for Coney Island Papa Benny would walk ove to the Broadway elevated board xt s1t opposlte an open wmdow and rude back and forth from one end o the lme to the other to cool off On these nrckel sprees of h1s he always carned the Txmes wh1ch he farmed hlmself wlth makmg sure the flag ol the paper was rn full vlew of every one on the tram lust a l1ttle more of Papas atmosphere The devll 1n Papa Benny really got loose the day the OPA mves txgator came around to check on Papas ce1lmg pr1ces Papa cursed and swore at all the samts from Peter to Thaddeus and when he ran out of names started on the people who owed h1m money Durmg wh1ch tlme the OPA mspector was scrutrmzmg the pm ups wh1ch Papa m true masculme appreclatmon had decorated h1s four walls w1th for 1nsp1rat1onal purposes Papa rn pure bombastrc protamty told the man that I gotta samma pnca fo twenna tree years ana I no gonna changa now fo no bodles wara no wara Roosevelta no Roosevelta rula no rula That mght when Tony Crpolla explamed to Papa Benny that the mspector only wanted to lmow why has pnces were so low compared to the other local shoe makers Papa msrsted 1n a less color ful d1alect that h1s busmess was h1s and that he would run It the way he lxked and that he was only stayxng here temporarrly anyhow and that he was gomg back to the old coun try as soon as he could anyway Theres a sign outslde the n1ca lllla shoppa now For Rent You see Papa Benny dred a death of apoplexy and temporar1ness a few weeks ago But even m death he kept up a brgga fronta He was gettrng ready to go to the Clpollas for dm ner when the attack caught hlm com plete wxth Panama vest bow t1e and Havana clgar 20 1 1 I I 1 I 11 11 ' 1 1 : I .- 1 1 11 1 11 - I 1 1 1 - 11 1 - 1 - 11 1 , 1 A 11 1 ,, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 11 1 1 11 11 , - 1 1 1 1 - 11 ' ' 1 1 1 ' , 11 1 11 - - 1 n 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 - 11 - 1 11 - - 11 1 1 e' ' 1 11 1 1 1 11 , 11 - 1 ' ' 1 1 I 1 1 1 - 1 1 11 - 11 - 1 1 I - 1 1 . 1 , 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 . 1 11 11 11 I 1 I 11 1, 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 1 11 1 11 - 1 1 1 v ' - , 1 - - 11 11 ' 11 1 1 1 1

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When he awoke he found hxmself lymg on a bed m asmall madequately furmshed room Dlrectly across from h1m sat a thm mlddle aged man w1th a dark complexxon typlcal of a person who spent long hours workxng out of doors Wh Where am I? Who Who are you? Let me mtroduce myself the man lnterrupted Im Messr Andre Lamont I found you lymg 111 the fmeld a few hours ago I saw what the Germans dld to you and your comrades I 1mmed1ately brought you here to my farm house I saw to 1t that your umform and parachute were destroyed for safetys sake What umform what para chute? Your Alr Force un1form Tell me son what IS your name? My name? It s-I I cant remember I pened to me a few hours aqo The Frenchman retold the story of how the Germans shot down the plane and how they fued at the crew who were parachutlng down Bob could not re call any such 1nc1dent It was ev1dent that he had a senous case of amnesla In the next couple of weeks he was glven refuge from the Nazls by van ous members of the underground They called h1m Yank because he was an Amencan If only Andre La mont hadnt destroyed hls un1form He mlght have found sultable lden t1f1cat1on to tell h1m who he was and exactly where he came from But h let 1t go at that and went under h1s assumed name of Yank Then the day came Iune 5 1944 The day before the European mva sxon of France Secret IIISIIUCIIOHS wzth all necessary equxpment were supplied to d1fferent parts of Nor mandy The Underground had been contacted by shortwave and all ar 19 rangements for the followmg day were completed There was a rallroad bndge near the coast that would be useful to the Germans It had to be demol1shed Three volunteers were asked for The work would be dan gerous and the only reward mlgh be death Ten men stepped forward only three were chosen Bob was one of them Maybe he shouldnt have volunteered After all lus was dan gerous work But he was mdebted to the French people for what they d1d for hxm and many others l1ke h1m No one knew h1m or any of h1s past l1fe If anythmg happened to h1m no one would know the dlfference The next mornmg at prec1sely 3 AM the ra1lroad bndge was blown to kmgdom come One of the men was lalled and Bob and the other one were senously wounded The rest of the mvaszon IS recorded hxstory He was sent to a hospltal mn England Later hls background was traced He often wondered how he spent money and wasted 1t so freely And how he ever could have been such a person People often p1t1ed hxm and felt sorry for hun because of the handxcap whlch he bore but after all blmd men are happy . u u - I 1 ., . 1 F? 1 . A 'ff , I ' I Ii I ' I ll II I don't remember what you say hap- ' . , ll K ' - I ll I ' I e . . . . . , I I I 0 .. , - .

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