The Buzzard at GrandMa's House

Keepin' Cool!

Sometimes it amazes me what I remember as a kid.  My grandparents owned a house on 32nd Avenue in Miami where I
spent most of my first 6 years. It was a totally cool house.  We had one of the very first air conditioned houses in Miami. Yep, my Dad had a commercial AC unit installed in the living room.  It was huge.... floor to cieling and sounded like a hurricane when it was on.  It was a unit designed to cool a large store so it wold drop the temperature in there like a rock.



My Dad also got the franchise for the very first car air conditioner and we actually had the first air conditioned car in Florida.  Yeah.... we had this thing about being cool.  My Dad made one of his famous business decisions and dropped the franchise because he figured AC for cars was a fad and no one would actually pay for it.

It was at this house my GrandDad broke my nose.  He bought me a softball for my 4th birthday and tossed it across the room to me. I made a great stop with my face and ended up with a broken nose.  That was the last time GrandDad ever played with me.





The "Buzzard" is born.

GrandDad was a gambler. Cards, horses, dogs or whatever he could find.  One day when I was 2 years old, I was on the living room floor and he gave me crayon and a newspaper to keep me quiet.  It was the racing section of the paper.  I sat there drawing circles around a horses name "Buzz Fuzz". GranDad thought it was a "sign" so he went to the track and bet on "Buzz Fuzz" to win.  The horse was a 40 to 1 shot and... he finished first!! My GrandDad started caling me Buzz Fuzz all the time but it quickly shortened to "Buzzy".

It was my neighbor Randy Macy who first started calling me The Buzzard.  My family hated it but I thought it was kinda cool so it stuck.

About my GranDad, I remember he shot his finger off while cleaning his shotgun out in the grarage.  He hardly ever spoke English. Mostly Arabic but he would never teach any of the family Arabic.  Said we were Americans and Americans spoke English.  I think he just wanted a way t talk to GrandMa without us knowing what they were saying.

Palmetto Bugs!

For those who do not know, Palmetto Bugs are roaches on steroids.  They are 3 to 4 inches long and fly. Nothing struck terror into my heart like hearing the whir of their wings in the dark.  Not knowing where it was landing.  The hair is standing up on the back of my neck as I type this.


GrandMa was fearless though.  She would chase those suckers with a fly swatter and hit them 8 or 10 times before they would die.  All the time she would be yelling in Arabic.



A Closet Full Of Money!

During this time my Dad and my Uncle Joe owned a small night club called The Saints and Sinners Lounge on Coral Way in Miami.  I would spend a lot of time over there with Dad and the waitreses were always really nice to me.

Back then all the tips were in change and the girls would get my Daddy to give them cash for the change every night.  He would come home every night with a big bank bag full of quarters, dimes and nickes.  He'd open the closet door and just dump the whole thing right there on the floor.  We had a pile of change in the closet that had to be 2 feet high and 4 or 5 feet across.  Anytime I wanted any money I would just go to the closet for a handful.  I really love a handful of change to this day.

The Buzzard