"Inwood is the northern most Manhattan neighborhood. The Inwood I'm writing about here no longer exists. When I was growing up in Inwood the place was 98% Irish Americans. Inwood has lots of history and when I look back there is nowhere else I'd have rather grown up.

I've been telling these stories for over 25 years and with the encouragement of Steve Latham and all my friends on the Jim Carroll mailing list I've finally started writing them down. They are all true, names are changed for obvious reasons or in some cases I do use nicknames or some first names. I don't know what I want to do with them, yet. I've been lucky enough to have a friend who is a musician who as encouraged me to read them in public."