Teenaged memories 2: No Smoking Section
Jan. 3rd, 2010 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationIn 1978 I was attending Tulane University in New Orleans.
One day in the University Center, I smelled and saw someone smoking in the non-smoking section. Four men in dark suits were seated at a table with the smoking man, a stocky late middle aged guy in a sports-coat. They didn't look like faculty. Visiting relatives of a student, I guessed. There was a a ring of empty tables around them.
I walked up to them. The four men in dark suits straigtened up and watched as a approached, but the smoking man paid me no mind, continuing to talk to the others until I reached the group.
"Pardon me, sir," I said as he stopped short and turned to stare at me with at "WTF" expression. "You're in the non-smoking section, sir," I said gesturing to a clearly visible sign. No reply. Gesturing to my right I continued in a polite but firm tone, "I see there are plenty of free tables in the smoking section."
He straightened up in his chair and loudly snarled at me: "I'll do what I want! I'm the mayor around here! Get outta here!" The other men glowered at me.
I shrugged my sholders, turned, and walked away with a shake of my head. What a jerk, I thought to myself. What an absurd thing to say, "I'm the mayor around here"; I could tell he was neither Dutch Morial, the new mayor, nor former mayor Moon Landrieu.
As soon as I'd turned the corner to be out of the line of sight of the table, another man approached me and asked "Do you know who that is?"
"No."
Carlos Marcello.
****
I have no idea what Marcello, whose main bases were in Jefferson Parish, would have been doing on the Tulane campus.
If I remember correctly, it was about this time that several feet of files disappeared over night from Tulane Library Special Collections papers of the late Congressman Hale Boggs. I never wondered if there might be any connection until years later.
One day in the University Center, I smelled and saw someone smoking in the non-smoking section. Four men in dark suits were seated at a table with the smoking man, a stocky late middle aged guy in a sports-coat. They didn't look like faculty. Visiting relatives of a student, I guessed. There was a a ring of empty tables around them.
I walked up to them. The four men in dark suits straigtened up and watched as a approached, but the smoking man paid me no mind, continuing to talk to the others until I reached the group.
"Pardon me, sir," I said as he stopped short and turned to stare at me with at "WTF" expression. "You're in the non-smoking section, sir," I said gesturing to a clearly visible sign. No reply. Gesturing to my right I continued in a polite but firm tone, "I see there are plenty of free tables in the smoking section."
He straightened up in his chair and loudly snarled at me: "I'll do what I want! I'm the mayor around here! Get outta here!" The other men glowered at me.
I shrugged my sholders, turned, and walked away with a shake of my head. What a jerk, I thought to myself. What an absurd thing to say, "I'm the mayor around here"; I could tell he was neither Dutch Morial, the new mayor, nor former mayor Moon Landrieu.
As soon as I'd turned the corner to be out of the line of sight of the table, another man approached me and asked "Do you know who that is?"
"No."
Carlos Marcello.
****
I have no idea what Marcello, whose main bases were in Jefferson Parish, would have been doing on the Tulane campus.
If I remember correctly, it was about this time that several feet of files disappeared over night from Tulane Library Special Collections papers of the late Congressman Hale Boggs. I never wondered if there might be any connection until years later.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 11:38 pm (UTC)You're lucky to still be walking on your own legs.
Famous tomato salesman
Date: 2010-01-05 06:51 pm (UTC)Probably the greatest package of evil in human form I'll ever encounter, unless I have some misfortune like getting on an elevator with Dick Cheney.