Groan Up: from Newark to Nebraska: A True Story (Sort Of)

By Andrew Malekoff

Groan Up: From Newark to Nebraska is a poetical memoir about family, neighborhood, lost childhood innocence, teenage angst, and the search for identity. Groan Up is not for everybody, but it is for anybody who wishes to take an odd journey filled with interesting characters, strange detours and black humor. The volume is divided into four books: the city (Newark, NJ), the suburbs (Maplewood, NJ), the campus (New Brunswick, NJ) and the country (Grand Island, Nebraska); each representing a different locale that the author lived through his early twenties.



Dave Marcus, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author (What it Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out - Houghton Mifflin) says of Groan Up Andrew Malekoff has a way of taking us on a long, dramatic journey with just a few words. Groan Up is especially remarkable because the carefully-chosen details ring so true a reader often gets a tingle, an Ive-been-there sense. What a pleasure to read an anti-memoir memoir a series of telling moments and scenes that resonate with our own lives even as they bring us out of our own lives."



2007 Andrew Malekoff

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 23, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465316806

Andrew Malekoff

Andrew Malekoff is a widely published author, editor, and poet. Groan Up: From Newark to Nebraska a true story (sort of) is his ninth book or monograph and second book of poetry. Among Mr. Malekoff’s publications are his first poetical work Nightcrawlers: after hours at the ER and the internationally acclaimed Group Work with Adolescents: Principles and Practice, published by the Guilford Press, now in its second edition and chosen as a main selection of the Behavioral Science Book Club. Mr. Malekoff is a social worker who has worked at the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn Heights, New York, since 1977 where he is presently executive director / CEO He has been the editor of the professional journal Social Work with Groups: a journal of clinical and community practice, since 1990. He lives in Long Beach, New York, with his wife Dale, an art teacher. They have two sons, Jamie and Darren.

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by Andrew Malekoff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

First Edition

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

42125

Contents

BOOK I

THE CITY: NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

BOOK II:

THE SUBURBS: MAPLEWOOD, NEW JERSEY

BOOK III

THE CAMPUS: NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY

BOOK IV

THE COUNTRY: GRAND ISLAND, NEBRASKA

This book is

dedicated

in

loving memory

of

Evelyn and Isadore

Malekoff

BOOK I

THE CITY: NEWARK, NEW JERSEY

it’s

time

to

break

the

sigh-lence.

i

was

four

or

five

at

the

time.

i

am

fairly

certain

B-cause

it

was

some time

after

brooklyn

won

the

world

series

finally

in 1955.

but

then again

the

yearz

have

a

way

of

blending

2gether

when

ur

small.

there

was

a

blue

dodger

champion-ship

pennant

above my

bed.

one even-ing

after

thanks-giving

i

was

looking

out-side

my

bed room

window

which faced

east.

in

those

daze

we

lived

in a

flat

in

the

middle

of

wainwright

street

between

chancellor

and

lyons.

on

the

n o r t h

w

e

s

t

corner

of

wainwright

was

an

ortho-dox

synagogue

that people referred to as

the shul

(pronounced shool, as in

school).

lots of

old guyz

with

beardz

hung out

on

the corner

by the

shul.

on

the

s

o

u

t

h w e s t

corner

of

wainwright

was

hoffmans

bakery;

i

liked

jew-ish

rye

bread

filled

with

little

striped

crescents

called

caraway

seeds ) ) ) )

i

liked

to ) pick ) the ) seeds )

out

and

eat

them

one ) by ) one )

directly

a cross

from the

bakery

on

the

opposite

corner

was

a

5 & 10

called

kristloffs;

i

got

payday-candy-bars

there:

you

know,

the

ones

with

nuts

and

nougat the gooey stuff

for

a

nickel.

a

couple

of

times

i

got

glitter

and

white

glue

4

school

projects.

sometimes

mom

sent

me down

2

kristloffs

2

buy

camel

cigar-ettes

for

a

quart-er

a

pack;

those

were

the

daze

b-4

joe camel.

payday, glitter, glue and camels

on

the

front

of

the

camel

pack

was

a

camel

and

three

palm trees

and

two

pyramids.

dad

also

smoked

camels:

no filters, mom neither.

one

time

he

asked

me

where

i

would

go

to

cool

off

if

it

was

real

hot

outside:

would

you

go

inside

a

p

y r a

m i d

beneath

a

a l

p t m

r

e

e

or

under

the

c a M e l

to

cool

off ? ? ?

after i made my choice

dad

flipped

the

pack

of

camels

over

and

said:

i’d

go

around

the

corner

to

the

new

H O T E L

there

was

a

palace

on

the

back;

i

thought

it

was

a

fun-ee

joke;