If the regular pay was important to him, the opportunity to learn was of even greater long-range significance.

Go that way, past the viaduct, and the wops will jump you, or chase you into Jew town…Polacks would stomp on you…Micks will shower you with Irish confetti from the brickyards.

Show me somebody who is always smiling, always cheerful, always optimistic, and I will show you somebody who hasn’t the faintest idea what the heck is really going on.