dale w miller
Very well Known Member
Im not sure how old you are Dale, but things were different BITD. We as a people, were a tougher bunch and we put up with a lot more from bosses and those in charge.
As I said in another post, the typical New Yorker wouldn’t have blinked an eye at Buddy’s behavior, because we were all like him to some degree. I’m not sure what years you lived in Brooklyn but the Brooklyn of the 60s to the 90s is not the Brooklyn of today, not by a long shot! I started in NYC construction in 83, and I can tell you it was rough and tough and if you couldn’t handle the screaming and yelling and maybe worse, you were out. It’s just the way it was and it was accepted. Of course, we have softened up over the years, which I guess is a good thing, but I do sort of miss the grit and toughness of those good ol days!![]()
First all, I lived in Brooklyn in the 90’s. I left to Asbury Park because all of the yuppies kept moving in raising the rent and sterilizing the neighborhood to the point that the artist were leaving. I was even mugged on the subway platform by a crackhead and I still lived there another couple of years afterwards until late ‘02, so don’t give me this “tough’n up” garbage.If you’re going to be a snowflake if the bandleader yells at you, then you certainly have the right to pack up and go home. The education you got by playing with Buddy was worth more than $100,000. These are kids right out of college throwing clams during the 2 hours every day they were working for Buddy. Once or twice, if you were giving 100%, was forgiven...continued clams and lazy, entitled attitude when it affected the band’s reputation was not. Not everyone should get a trophy for “participating”. You don’t want the job? Ten other guys are dying to take it.
Every band I play with is from Brooklyn, so even though I left, I am still there all of the time and I know the difference. You just don’t speak that way to people and anyone who was raised right knows this. Next thing you know you’re going to tell me that using racial and homophobic slurs are okay too and if I was tough enough I could handle it.
Let’s not pretend for a second too that Buddy was doing this out of the goodness of his heart, to be a father figure and give these boys an education. He probably could only play with people that young because the older players wouldn’t be spoken to in this manner or get paid next to nothing.
And I only got one trophy in my life and that was when my swim team won the regional championship.