CAPICHE?

By Roger Esty

"Do you get it? Capiche?",my Uncle Joe turned to my father.
"Naw,it didn't happen that way. That movie is horrible,"responded my father.
We were all sitting in the living room. My sisters rented The Godfather. The movie had been out quite a while,but my father never seemed interested to watch it. Finally,one night we talked him into it.My mother stayed in the bedroom.
"But Joe,"said my uncle with a big smile,"how about when Marlon Brando makes him an offer he can't refuse?"
My uncle was beside himself. He grew up in the neighborhood in the Southwest Side of Chicago ,but was never in the Outfit. He saw those guys,but they never cut him in on anything. My father? Well,his dad Diamond Joe assured my father that one day he would be welcome. He knew them all.

"Look."said my father to my uncle,"if you believe that crap go ahead. You're about that stupid to fall for it."
My father never cared much for my Uncle Joe(my mother's brother).I don't think my Uncle Joe liked my father much either. My father thought that his brother in law was a low life always going to Tijuana on the bus playing the dogs at Caliente and eating those hot dogs off the cart and getting in at 4 in the morning. You see,my uncle was living with us at the time.

My uncle thought he told the funniest stories . He liked to talk about when he was in the Army in WWII. I don't think he saw any action or he would have talked about it,but he did say that General Patton gave him a pat on the shoulder while my uncle was on guard duty in France.

My dad was a Marine in two of the biggest battles of the Pacific and in the thick of it everyday. My father thought my uncle was a blowhard.

"But Giuseppe ,"urged my uncle,"The Godfather won all the awards."
"I don't give a damn. What do they know?"
Well, that night was a dud. My father wasn't impressed and it put another nail into my uncle's coffin as far as my dad liking him.

"Joe,"said my uncle laughing away,"The Godfather won Brando an Oscar."
"Look,"said my father with a straight face,"You and Brando can go f--k yourselves. Capiche?