Sal grew up in the Brooklyn Navy Yard neighborhood in the 1940s and early 1950s and this is his story.\u00a0 The book takes you from when he was born in 1935 up to 1953 when he was drafted into the Korean War.\u00a0 Sal has great recall and shared many poignant memories with me about his life and neighborhood, many of which found their way onto the pages of this book.\u00a0 Sal expresses himself in an incomparable way.\u00a0 When I first met him in 2011, I quickly found out he had an appealing way of articulating himself.\u00a0 In one moment I would feel a flash of hot anger when Sal described a wrong; in another moment I would laugh at an amusing story and in yet another, a twinge of sadness would come over me.\u00a0 Keep in mind all these feelings I experienced were from reading<\/em> Sal’s experiences.\u00a0 To state the obvious, these are not my experiences.\u00a0 Imagine how Sal would feel these emotions much more intensely, having been the one who lived through them.<\/p>\n Sal was a member of the Sand Street Angels gang from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and there are a couple of chapters devoted to the Angels.\u00a0 However, Sal’s story isn’t just about the Angels.\u00a0 This book goes into his family, home, relationships with adults in the neighborhood, the police and wise guys.\u00a0 Click here for a list of chapters<\/a>.\u00a0 If you want a coming-of-age story in mid 20th century Brooklyn, this book is for you.\u00a0 But even if you didn’t come here looking for a coming-of-age story in mid 20th century, this book is still for you.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because whatever country, state, city or century, decade or year you come from, the human ordeal is common to all of us.\u00a0 Yes, our experiences are different, but our feelings and emotions are the bond we share.<\/p>\n My Climb to the Top of the Bottom book cover<\/p><\/div>\n It took Sal and I over a year to finish this book.\u00a0 Actually, come to think of it, that’s not true.\u00a0 Technically, we’ve been working on it since we met in 2011.\u00a0 Since the day we met, I saved every email Sal sent me – over 2,500 of them!\u00a0 For this book I went through every single one of Sal’s emails to me and harvested the important stories, grafting them into the book.\u00a0 In addition to that, Sal and I communicated constantly and furiously from July 2020 to August 2021.\u00a0 He shared new stories with me and I asked follow-up questions and clarifications that would make a normal person dizzy.\u00a0 But Sal is far from normal, and that’s a good thing.\u00a0 He is one of those people in life who you will never meet again.\u00a0 So, together Sal and I honed, polished and crafted.\u00a0 This is the end product.<\/p>\n My sister Sarah was also a critical cog in this process.\u00a0 She built some exquisite scratch-built dioramas of Sal’s neighborhood and they figure prominently on the pages of this book.\u00a0 Click here to see an example of one of her dioramas<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only that, she also helped with formatting the book.\u00a0 I can see her now, sitting at my desk, her fingers a’whirring and a’tapping on the keyboard, fixing headers and footers and probably wondering how her big brother could be so daft and clueless.\u00a0 Watching her work, I felt relieved, thankful and indebted all at the same time.\u00a0 But most importantly, she designed the handsome cover you see above.\u00a0 I couldn’t have done it without her.<\/p>\n My mother also played a very important role by proofreading the book from cover to cover.\u00a0 My mom has been proofreading my work and gritting her teeth in the process since high school in the early 90s, when I gave her flak every time she checked over my English essays.\u00a0 Why she agreed to proofread not only this book, but also The Thief and the Widow<\/em><\/a> and Brooklyn Rumble<\/em>,\u00a0<\/a> is a riddle to me.\u00a0 I guess the answer to that riddle is the mystery of the love of a mother who wants the best for her children.\u00a0 The book is that much better with her editing skills.\u00a0 Thank-you Mom (now, should I capitalize “mom,” or not?\u00a0 Hmmm, I can never remember that one for some reason; I guess I will have to ask you ha!).<\/p>\n Sal was a dream to work with.\u00a0 His work ethic was like that of the hard-hat\/lunch bucket, blue-collar crowd that his neighborhood modeled for him when he was a boy.\u00a0 He didn’t blink once with all my questions and constant requests for clarification.\u00a0 Now, maybe he had a few choice words for me under his breath (I say this in jest of course), but I never noticed.\u00a0 Sal trusted me with the book structure and creative direction and never complained.\u00a0 He gave me so much respect which gave me the confidence to edit with joy.\u00a0 But make no mistake, this book is about Sal Cataldo and I told him many times that he was the captain of the ship and that any suggestion I made he could nix at any time.\u00a0 This is his story and I didn’t want to get in the way.<\/p>\n Lastly, I want to thank Sal’s entire family for their love for their husband, father and uncle.\u00a0 Their love for Sal was the oxygen he needed to write this book.\u00a0 I specifically want to give credit to his wife Lee and daughter Nancy who were important parts of this process too, encouraging Sal along the way.\u00a0 Thank-you Lee and Nancy.<\/p>\n When I first published Brooklyn Rumble<\/em>\u00a0 in 2018, I sold it through this website.\u00a0 However, since then, I found out how to list the book on Amazon.\u00a0 In that same vein, My Climb to the Top of the Bottom<\/em> is also available on Amazon.\u00a0 Click here and order your copy while supplies last<\/a>.\u00a0 I hope you find it as good a read as Sal’s friend Burt Young (of Hollywood fame) did.\u00a0 He endorsed the book with these words:<\/p>\n Sal Cataldo is an old friend of mine, a good man.\u00a0 He’s a good father, a family man.\u00a0 He is quiet and strong and handles life pretty well.\u00a0 His writings are like his life: rich and wonderful.<\/p>\n – Burt Young, Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actor in Rocky<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sal, it’s been an honor working with you.\u00a0 We make an incredible team.<\/p>\n![\"My](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorkcitygangs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/book-cover.jpg?resize=640%2C397&ssl=1\")
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