Pade Essay @149st

PADE ESSAY

©2001, 2003 @149st Do not republish without permission.

From @149st questioner December 3, 2001.
The first time I went bombing trains was with my home boy REGAL RTW. We did insides at 207th on the 1 line. I was writing 2RUFF and 2TUFF. I did insides on the RR line in Brooklyn and during rush hour in midtown. I started hanging with BILROCK 161 in late '79. He had a photo album that he got from REPEL which really blew my mind. I would look that book for hours drooling over pieces by CASE, FED 2, DONDI, PART, TRACY 168, SLAVE, LEE, FUZZ ONE and countless other burners. I had seen JESTER, OO ONE, PNUT and others growing up and their work was enough to catch my interest but BIL's book opened up a whole new world for me.

I went by myself to the 1 Yard to do my first piece. One day I was doing insides in the 1 Tunnel when I met SEEN, MAD, and EASY. They invited me up to the Bronx to hit the 6 line to do pieces. That is where I started writing PADE. The first piece I was happy with was at the CC yard with BILROCK and T KID. BIL was at the end of his career and I think the last time he bombed was with me, KB,KN and others at the 28th Street. RR lay-up.

MIN was just getting going on the road to becoming the All-City King,(1981). I started to hang out with MIN ONE all the time. We did throw-ups and insides on the A line with writers like IZ THE WIZ, QUIK and SACH. We also did throw-ups in the E yard and the lay-ups at Sutphin/Van Wyck. The spots which we considered ours were the City Hall lay-up and the AA yard at 175th Street. We also felt at home on the Manhattan Bridge which was right around the corner from "The Way" Henry Street, home of TNS. I hung out with EL3(RIP), BYE(RIP), RICH 2, HEC, SEC, and others in "The Crib" which was an abandoned building on Henry Street Actually, the only line I never hit was the 7 which was still hot from the days of FUZZ ONE.

MIN was at war with everyone at the time and being one of his partners, so was I. MIN was at war with SAGO and I joined the fight when I started going over BOE. MIN wound up meeting SAGO and decided to squash the beef and hang out to hit the Coney Island Yard. I thought that I would probably have to throw down with BOE if I was lucky and didn't get jumped by their whole crew. When we got there they treated us with utmost respect and we became homeys.

MIN started to become interested in doing burners again when he was hanging with SHY147 and DURO. KEL MIN and SHY were doing pieces on the 2s and 5s and soon we were all doing pieces in City Hall. KEL 139 had a large influence on my way of piecing. I remember he would stand by me while I was outlining and punch my arm if my line wasn't straight.

I have dozens of stories of raids, rackings, beefs, and historical antidotes. Once at a raid at the 6 yard I got separated from my crew the cops were between me and the hole the fence. I followed EL KAY, a small writer who knew the yard better than I did, to another exit. As soon as we hit the sidewalk the transit police rolled around the corner. We ran right past them and up the stairs of the Westchester Square station, still carrying huge bags of paint. Jumping the turnstiles we went up to the platform. We stood on the platform, each looking down a stairway from above.

I heard the slow footsteps and the telltale rattling of keys, cuffs, gun, and other paraphernalia. Next I was looking straight down on his cap as it bobbed up the stairs. EL KAY jumped down onto the tracks and in a blink I was with him. As we negotiated the elevated tracks looking down to the street below I thought of what I always thought of up there. I thought of the writer who fell through a gap and landed in the street only to be run over by a bus. I just had to step carefully. I looked up to the platform where the police officer was walking at the same slow pace we were negotiating the tracks. He was telling us to stop. It was at that moment that I realized that he wasn't going to follow us onto the tracks.

At the end of the platform was a lay-up. We went down a few cars then crossed over to the northbound side planning to climb down to the street. We had just climbed under the tracks when a train passed overhead. I had my arm over a railroad tie holding on for dear life. We climbed down a pole and were in the street. After walking a couple stops we hopped the train and went our separate ways. I used my key to open a vacant conductors booth and rode back to Manhattan. I never saw EL KAY again but I always wanted to thank him.

Peace to all my home boys
PADE - RTW TNS ROC TVS TD

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