rant · moment 8 of 20
Crack Houses, the Sopranos Connection, and Neighborhood Mob Lore
from Subsistence Hustlers · #21
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
3 minTim describes his hometown's mob lineage (Henry Hill, Paulie from Goodfellas, the Sopranos inspiration), the code of silence growing up, and childhood memories of squalid drug houses.
- 23:49Tim compares the loosely regulated loan origination system pre-2008 to the Casino reference—everybody got cute and the whole industry collapsed.
- 24:06Getting above board is nearly impossible when you're broke: you need money to open a bank account, which you need for direct deposit.
- 24:34A lot of his friends chose to live a criminal lifestyle despite coming from decent families, while others with actual nightmares ended up fine.
- 24:48Tim's mom rented rooms to people early on, and they'd start out great before deteriorating.
- 25:20Tim did his first line of blow at thirteen while hanging out in a crack house on Long Island.
- 25:43As a teenager he never got to the point of robbing people because there was nobody to rob—you'd just steal from your parents on payday.
- 25:59Tim and his best friend each stole a hundred dollars from their mothers when they got paid, then would meet up to buy drugs.
- 26:13They'd meet in Oil City, some mysterious patch of land that Tim struggles to describe.
- 26:25Tim and his friend would take turns scoring drugs, sometimes one scoring when the other couldn't.