2011-02-17

Sal & The Sidekicks.

As some of you know, I've started this Twitter account strictly to record the bon mots I overhear on the 108 bus.

Since I've been living in Malden Rock City (no seriously - I'm within walking distance of Extreme's first practice space), I've actually kind of grown to love the 108, and the marvelous cross-section of society that boards it every morning at approximately 8:20 AM. Tidily-groomed yuppies sit alongside sullen Malden High School kids. Weary young mothers and their uber-strollers clog the aisles with people having very interesting conversations with themselves.

And then there's the group I call "Sal & the Sidekicks."

Sal and his cohorts provide probably 3/4 of the quips I've posted up on the internets. From what I've been able to discern, they all live in a halfway house about a block up the street from me.

Sal kind of looks like The Situation from "Jersey Shore," if you can picture The Situation after a prolonged meth binge. Sal always wears a hat, as Sal has some male pattern balding going on. But he won't just shave his head, much to the consternation of Rick, who "shaved that shit off years ago, kid," when he started losing HIS hair at 25. Rick is built like a linebacker, always in a scally cap, and refers to everyone as "kid." Rick is the most vocal of Sal's sidekicks, always ready to argue with anything Sal says, just for the sake of arguing with Sal.

"That girl we met the other day...now she was stupid."
"She was wicked stupid, kid."
"But she hadda be in college, so I don't understand how she could be so stupid."
"She was thirteen, kid. She wasn't in no college."
"She had a college....thing....on her backpack, though."
"Then she got that from an older brother or somethin'. She was thirteen, kid."
"Nahhhhh..."
"Listen, that girl wasn't even in high school yet; that's how stupid she was."
"Well, I mean, not everybody's got street smarts."
"You don't gotta have street smarts to know what street you're on, kid."

The other sidekicks are mostly silent - content to let Sal rant about the cost of cigarettes, his plans for financial success once he's off parole, and the coterie of women that Sal meets under nebulous circumstances.

They are seriously hilarious, and remind me of everything that I love about recovery. I love listening to them as they say the most insane stuff, and I love realizing that even as I'm sitting here in my nice coat and my cute shoes, I am no different than these dudes. We're all on the bus, just trying to get through the day, one day at a time.

lisamcc at 11:54 a.m.

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