A Bronx Tale
Blue Collar Tragedy & A Kingpin's Folly Pt.2
In the case of Sonny,Calogero while loving his dad has a deepened admiration for the mobster from an early age.Calogero looks at Sonny & sees everything his father isn't and all the things that he simply does not have. Calogero sees wealth, a broader sense of respect within the community, he sees the kind of power most folks can only dream of wielding, he sees a fear that makes things happen, he sees influence, & above all he sees a strain of success that's universally admired.
Despite his father's warnings about Sonny,Young Calogero continues to immersive himself in the Kingpin's scene until one day he witnesses a murder committed by Sonny and his henchmen.Knowing that his son and the entire neighborhood saw what went down on the streets Lorenzo protects his boy by advising him to keep quiet and when the cops come calling shortly after Lorenzo fervently insists that Calogero saw nothing and knew nothing & naturally when a suspect line up is brought before the kid he never points out Sonny as the one who pulled the trigger.
Sometime later Calogero is invited by one of Sonny's men to come over and see him at the back alley bar near his apartment building. Now both Calogeros mother & Father tell the boy repeatedly to stay away from there and yet he's always drawn to that place and thanks to Sonny's invite gets to fully immerse himself in that forbidden world of Wise guys & gentlemen gangsters.
When young Calogero is brought to Sonny one afternoon
He's invited to sit down with the mobster and chat a bit.At first Calogero doesn't say much to the man but Sonny eager to get to know the boy breaks the ice and opens up the conversation by taking notice of Calogeros Yankees hat & asking if the kid is a Yankees fan? When Calogero answers yes he then goes on to talk about Mickey Mantles tears during some recent game and this passionate rant ends up making Sonny burst into laughter.
Now why would Sonny laugh his ass off at a little boy? At first I thought that this was a dick move but then Sonny explained that Mickey mantle made well over 100k a year and then asks the kid how much his father Lorenzo made driving the bus? Calogero in all honesty doesn't have the vaguest idea about the specifics of his old man's salary BUT he is starting to understand more and more that his family is poor which is a bitter and cold realization that all children who grow up in poverty come to realize sooner rather than later.
Sonny then emphasizes another simple yet potent truth to Calogero by stating that if one day his father couldn't pay the rent & asked Mickey mantle for any form of assistance the rich athlete for lack of more appropriate terms wouldn't give a good shit about Calogero or his family's plight.
Sonny reiterates by telling the boy that if Mickey mantle doesn't care about him then it's essentially irrational and frankly retarded for Calogero to care about Mickey mantle and in modern times we're starting to realize the vapidness that comes along with celebrity culture and are even starting to analyze/study the influencers and other public figures we watch on a more deeper level…the worship of such idols is out of fashion for the most part and we no longer invest our blood,sweat,tears,and life force into such people because we realize that even though we may be avid followers of them or even fans they're not our friends and in the grand scheme of things we mean nothing to them and own no mental real estate up in their minds.
After this impromptu chit chat with Sonny, Calogero never feels the same way about the Yankees or Mickey Mantle again & embeds himself much deeper in Sonny's world.Even though he's still a very young boy Calogero takes up a job working at the mobsters bar/ gambling den and in a very short span of time even out earns his father's salary by just serving up drinks and giving refills to the gangsters that frequent the joint.
From here young Calogero begins working part-time at Sonny's bar club and earns a rather substantial wage by serving / refilling drinks and working the dice games that take place there from time to time. Soon after Calogero begins to see the benefits of having a man like Sonny in his corner due to people in the neighborhood giving him things free of charge and being profusely kind to him simply because of his minor affiliations to the gangster.
Excited by this discovery Calogero runs inside the house to tell his mother but is instantly met by his parents who are in a state of shock and perplexed anger after discovering that he's saved a bit over 600$ which I guestimate would've been equivalent to around 2k-3k in today's Money.when Lorenzo questions his son about where he got the cash & how he managed to get ahold of that fat an amount without being a brain surgeon?
Calogero repeatedly tells his father that he worked for it by working at Sonny's bar & this triggers Lorenzo for a multitude of reasons which we'll break down here. First off those of Lorenzo's generation up until roughly the Gen X reign had a bit of a suffering kink in terms of mindset. A majority of people in those times were of the belief that if money came easily without much agony, sacrifice of time , or sweat equity then your gains were either ill gotten or your social dealings / Enterprises were clearly nefarious.
Nowadays those of the Millennial & Gen Z ( also those who fall in between the two current reigning generations ) don't have such a lust for agony and suffering.This life is already hardcore enough and there's no need and no good reason under God's flaming sun to make shit more brutal than it already is by default. If something happens to come easily to you without too much resistance or red tape be it money , an important connection , a resource , or an opportunity then that's a win to be celebrated because lady luck,lady fate, & mother fortune are showing their favor to you all at once.