I left school with the theory of life that you learned a trade, took care of yourself, made your way and enjoyed what was put on earth for a man to enjoy—women.
Preamble: Becoming a Man on the Streets of Baltimore: Age 16 to 21
It was a hell of a lot better than being in the school system. That was just a warehouse—from warehouse to prison—nothing for me in there. Being able to get out and make money and get a vehicle was great. I wound up quitting working for Harlow at the KFC so I could make better money. When I quit school I could get into construction. A friend of mine—a Parkville guy—got me a job. They had a little construction shop behind Dead Freddy’s in that little row of garages. It was struggling, a small business, a good guy in his forties, but he didn’t have a lot of work. I was there a few months and the work dried up. I saw an ad in the paper by this guy, Tony who did roofing and hired on with him. At about this time I also pursued my two other interests besides learning trade: boxing was a real passion with me and of course ploughing through as much quality pussy as humanly possible.
The interview covering this period of Ron’s life produced a nearly 9,000-word transcript that skipped around a lot. While the cute barmaid was asking about Mescaline Franklin and confiding to Ron about an obnoxious patron, I decided that the projected chapter 3 was going to become chapters 3 through 6. Sorting out the major threads in Big Ron’s late adolescence proved difficult for the both of us. So we have decided on the following scheme of presenting this formative part of his life in four chapters. This approach will alter the original outline to a three-part memoir, with the final three chapters focusing on Ron's majority, from 22 to 41 years, which will focus heavily on the construction trade.
-Chapter 3: Hard, Dangerous Men: My Quest to Meet Baltimore’s Best Street Boxers
-Chapter 4: Big White Niցցer Diagnoses: Unapologetically White on the Streets of Baltimore
-Chapter 5: Standing Up on the Job: Working Construction in Early 1990s Baltimore
Chapter 6: The Hour Glass That Melts in Your Hands—Dating Strippers and All the Dumb Shit Implicit in That Pursuit
Being a Bad Man in a Worse World
Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival
