Twenty.

20

We used to play ledge against the AB Dick building up the street when young. 

AB Dick was a small printing press manufactures and distributor. Ledge was a

form of baseball played with a rubber ball against the base of a wall or ledge.

Little did I know that I would grow up to feed those very presses with plates

for years. Until my job became obsolete due to NAFTA and technical advances

that transformed my industry and eliminated whole professions that had been

the livelihood of men and families for generations. My father’s father learned to

play ledge in Brooklyn when he was growing up and taught it to my father in 

the thirties. We learned it from my Dad in the sixties. I learned to compose type

and make printing plates from men who had done so all of their lives. Little did 

I know then that my mother’s family were all printers for generations. Like father, 

like son, like father, like me; great great grand son. In a former lifetime I had a 

near life experience. I remember the first time I played ledge against the AB Dick 

building.  I threw a rubber ball through a window and ran like hell!

07October2020

Markle~