As you probably know from the movies, New Jersey is the home of the mob. There was a famous house that was behind a iron gate with a long drive way and lots of trees. It was whispered that a “Family” boss lived there. I had a friend named Ken Cappola who also worked at IBM. He was a dark skinned European looking person, chubby and short. He was a fun guy and I liked him. But Cappola was also the name of a local crime boss. One day Ken was driving on the interstate and apparently speeding, when he was pulled over by a patrolman. The cop came up to the car window and asked to see driver’s license and registration. Ken handed over his license, the cop took one look at the name and turned white as a sheet. He stammered, “I didn’t know it was you, sir. I am truly sorry.” He gave the license back and ran back to his patrol car and drove off. Ken came in the office later and he was laughing his head off. True story.
New Jersey, like New Orleans was a beautiful place, but corrupt on the inside. You could drive the interstates and see nothing but trees. You know there are houses near by, lots of them, but you can’t see them. The traffic was typical for the east coast. We lived about 10 miles from where I worked and it took me over 30 minutes to get to work. And I didn’t have Ipod’s to listen to in those days. I listened to New York City Radio. I listened to Imus in the Morning. As you probably know, he is still on the air, at least when he’s not being kicked off for saying something politically incorrect. He was fun to listen to back then.The state government was corrupt, though. We paid high state taxes and property taxes, yet the roads were terrible. I remember the potholes leading into Hopatcong Lake. We would joke that the tire manufacturers and the highway department were in cahoots with each other to purposely ruin your tires so you would buy new ones.
Dad