Ron Rooter was a nice man, a tall blond man, where Daddy was normal height and stout. Everything about them was a contrast, from Daddy’s thick brown hair and square block head to Ron’s thinning blond hair and smallish, round skull. Every so often there were get-togethers at Mister Ron’s place, where he had the coolest basement, complete with a bar and hung with the 1968 Baltimore Orioles pennant in red on black.
As Tony and Jimmy understood it, the Baltimore Orioles baseball team was the centerpiece of our relationship with Mister Ron. Daddy had a large Impala car, a regular battering ram of a boat, in a dark gold to brown shade. Mister Ron had a light blue van, with a flat front and slightly rounded top. Mister Ron had a pretty dark-haired wife and a boy somewhat younger than Tony.