So you lived in Parkchester,
Might as well have been the moon,
Way up there, Northern Bronx
From where I lived,
Grass and trees, almost in Yonkers.
Up there you needed a car.
I lived in a fifth floor walkup in Highbridge,
Walton Avenue,
Near the tracks.
But what’s better than Highbridge?
Down the hill to Yankee Stadium,
Over McCombs to the Polo Grounds,
A couple of blocks to Grand Concourse.
Who needed a car?
Where the subway went was good enough.
High school?
Cardinal Hayes,
Right by the tracks.
Ten bucks a month in 1950…
Now it’s five grand a year.
I get the Alumni Bulletin, so I know.
I saw Jake LaMotta park his Caddie
On the Concourse once…
And on 161st Yogi asked me,
Hey, kid, you got a dime
    For a couple of wooden nickels?
Yeah, those were the times.