Ask a New Yorker: What’s your story?
Richard: My name is Richard Rivera. I was born in Manhattan, in Chelsea on 18th
Street and 9th Ave. back in 1944. I’m 65 and I’m hoping to retire
soon. I hope. Anyway, when I grew up in the Chelsea area in 1944 through 1970,
it was a tough area. There were longshoremen and it was a real tough, tough
area.
Ask a New Yorker: Did you ever get mugged?
Richard: No. I was in a gang. I was the leader of the gang called the Chessmen.
Ask a New Yorker: So you did lots of community service?
Richard: Yes, sure community service. (Laughs) I was in a gang because you were
on the street all the time. There was no such thing as staying in your house.
You really lived on the street basically, 24/7 and if you ran with the gang
you had protection. There was no air conditioning, no television. Everybody
was basically poor and you hung out on the street all the time. It was very
communal. The park was our hangout spot, our central meeting place. New York
gives you that self confidence, that motivation, to move, to do, to take, to
get. If I had grown up anyplace other than New York I don’t think I would
have been where I am financially, mentally and with my family. New York gives
you something. I’m not a very well educated person, I got a GED from high
school, I took a few courses in community college but I have street smarts and
I have motivation and that’s what New York taught me.
Ask a New Yorker: What kind of things did you do in the gang? Did you jack cars
and steal radios?
Richard: Yea, we jacked cars and stole radios. We had a lot of gang fights in
those days with other gangs. The Village was right there, so there were Italian
gangs. We went to Charles Evan Hughes High School. There was a gang out of Charles
Even Hughes called the Baldies. They were from Harlem. We use to have big time
fights with those guys. Molotov cocktails. It was a serious kind of area.
Ask a New Yorker: Madison Square Garden was right up the street. Did you go
to the circus as a kid?
Richard: No, we weren’t circus kind of kids. The circus was like, for
wimps. We went to basketball and hockey games, the Rangers and Knicks… We
went to a lot of Golden Gloves. At one time I wanted to be a boxer. I went to
the CYO and took some boxing lessons, then I got into the ring and the guy punched
me in the nose and it started to bleed. I got mad. I tackled the guy in the
ring and I wanted to kick his ass. That was the last time I fought in a ring.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you like ballet?
Richard: I was introduced to ballet by a girl when I was around 23 years old.
Then eventually she didn’t care for the ballet anymore and became an exercise
girl at Belmont Race Track and introduced me to horse racing. I used to go to
the track a lot and bet. In those days I was freelancing selling “different
items”, at that time.
Ask a New Yorker: What do you do for work now?
Richard: I work in the transportation business for a moving company for the
last 35 years.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you move anyone of interest, celebrities?
Richard: The moving company that I work for is White
Glove Transportation. We do move some celebrities, very high end people.
I’m not at liberty to say who they are because it wouldn’t be right
for me to give that information out.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you have any pets?
Richard: We have three dogs, a cat and five kids. They’re nice pets. (Laughs)
My wife is an assistant animal technician at an animal hospital. When I was
a kid we didn’t have pets. We couldn’t afford them. At that time
we could hardly feed ourselves. But now we have pets.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your choice dressing for salad?
Richard: I’m a French dressing kind of guy. I used to be oil and vinegar.
Ask a New Yorker: Have you ever thought what it would be like to be a woman?
Richard: No, I don’t think like that. But if I was a woman I’d probably
be the biggest tramp around. I would never work a day in my life. I’d
be on easy street. Life is good. I’ve learned a lot. I grew up with a
lot of diversified people, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Irish. It was a real
mishmash in Chelsea at that time. It was a great place to grow up because you
learned how to deal with all types of people and nationalities. You become street
smart and eventually those experiences pay off in life as long as you don’t
go to jail or get killed first or become a drug addict.
Ask a New Yorker: What do you think of our President?
Richard: I didn’t vote for him. I don’t particularly like his style.
I think we are in route to a whole new era, a whole new bad era. Financially
I don’t think he has a clue. I think he has some of that Black Panther
ethics in him from those days. I just don’t care for his politics. But
I’m not into politics. I vote. I voted for a few presidents. My favorite
president is Richard Nixon. He was a great president for this country. He just
made one mistake. We all make mistakes. He just made a big mistake while he
was president. Ronald Reagan another great president.
Ask a New Yorker: How are your barbeque skills?
Richard: I love to barbeque. I like to marinate stuff. I’m a barbeque
guy.
Ask a New Yorker: Do you watch any reality TV?
Richard: No, I don’t watch reality shows. I grew up in a reality; I don’t
need reality shows to see reality. I saw it firsthand.
