I was a huge Jean Shepherd fan as a kid. I used to listen to his radio show on WOR almost every night. He also broadcast live from the Limelight in Greenwich Village on Saturday nights. His show ran for more than 20 years.
He was the first person I every heard refer to New York as the Big Apple. Shep was a lifelong radio ham in addition to being a storyteller. It was enormously appealing to an 12 year old boy like me to listen a guy that wrote for Playboy, was in the army signal core, talked about working in steel mills, and building radios from scratch. He instilled a love of electronics in me that lasts to this day.
His old radio shows are still broadcast on WBAI in New York. You can download them from the
MASS BACKWARDS.
The fireworks story is called Ludlow Kissle and the Dago Bomb that struck back. It is one of the chapters in his first compellation of Playboy articles called In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. You can find the audio for it through the link above.
The story that was the basis for the movie A Christmas Story is called Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid. The audio is also available through the link.
I could go on all night but just remember that New York is a summer fist fight, Flick Lives and Excelsior you fathead!
- Pete