Sunday, October 7, 1945
THE TRIBUNE'S LAST NESHOBA NOCTURNE--MACKIN'S LIFE (CONDENSED FOR WARTIME READING)
By Cliff Mackin, PhD, B.A. FPM,RM2/c

The question at the moment is whether I was born or trapped.

To clarify this I will say, "born." The place was Brooklyn, the time....oh, a few years ago.
Shortly thereafter my father was asked to leave Brooklyn and we worked it out to Queens County to set up house and pop's bookie parlor in the nestling village of Ozone Park.

I had the normal baby life....police, the line-up, crap games; everything that early culture had to offer.

I have been through four schools--elementary, high, reform, and finishing
.
I don't know why they sent me to finishing. I was finished already.

My first and only love was with a delicious girl, but it soon broke up. She was two-faced. Found out later the truth of the matter was she had two heads. After a few years of the social life (I always traveled with the upper set--the lower ones hurt me) the Navy put out its helping hand and I enlisted. That was in January 1943.

I immediately took advantage and got my little self into all the activities.

I took first prize in a beauty contest at Great Lakes; the judge made me put her back....

But all in all the life hasn't been too bad. And so after 2-1/2 years, I am here on the Mighty "N."

The time is coming when I must be going, but until then, I will just spend my time working like a beaver on this ship. The rest of this autobiography cannot be written as yet, because of the uncertainty of the future....but one thing for sure....I'll always be grubbing cigarettes.