The Hoodlum Girls of Puppy Town

I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook, but recently I got caught up in some posts from a group from my old Chicago neighborhood. Someone posted a do you remember and included a photo of an old movie theater I’d gone to as a kid. It was one of those elegant movie palaces with a ceiling that looked like the sky. I remembered that they had a machine in the ladies room that gave you a squirt of cologne for probably a nickle or a dime.

All that remembering inspired me to think about other places from my childhood. There was a place called Puppy Town that sold hot dogs, French fries and the like. It was a tough sort of place where hoodlum kids hung out. The way you could tell the hoodlum girls was how they tied their babuskas right at their chins. I was about seven and I very much wanted to try one of the tamales they sold there. I went there by myself during school lunch hour. I bought my tamale but when I saw all the hoodlum girls I got scared and took my tamale home.

I posted the story about Puppy Town and the tough girls who I thought probably belonged to gangs. I was curious if anyone else remembered the place, though I didn’t expect it. I sometimes thought it was all a figment of my imagination. I mean, what seven-year-old goes to a place like that by themselves? It was quite a distance from my house and I had to cross a busy street. Did my mother know I was going there? Or maybe it was when she’d gone back to work and wasn’t home to know what I was doing.

I also wondered if the tough girls really existed, though I had checked with an old friend who confirmed the babuska thing.

Well, to my surprise, not only were there people who remembered Puppy Town, but it was several of the hoodlum girls who assured me they didn’t belong to a gang, but one of them did acknowledge they were probably scary to a little kid.

I couldn’t believe it. I actually heard from the girls with the babuskas. I guess that’s the appeal of Facebook.

On Saturday, December 1^st the E version of INHERIT THE WOOL is going to be available for 99 cents at all e book retailers. It’s a special deal for one day only. It’s a fun book. Casey puts on a retreat for some of her old college friends. Tell your friends.