This is an excerpt from my autobiography entitled "Audiobiography - Cook Jackson" (it's a short-story)
by Cook Jackson
We needed to have one last rockin' good time for the end of the summer in 1995. It was the summer we drank under the train trestle connecting Brooklawn and Westville. It was the summer of Mad Dog 20/20 and Zima. Damian was the only one with a driver's license or a car. We were 16, Damian had just turned 17. He had a 1982 "shit-blue" Ford Escort. "Me Wee Escert" he would call it. (One time he shop-lifted a car stereo from Bradlee's for it but I'd have to let Jerry Collins tell that one since he was #1 accomplice) We didn't know Kufinski too well back then and he was known as "Franco." It was our job, the 3 of us - Damian, "Franco", and Me, to pick up beer & transport it to the trestle for our big Labor Day party under a bridge.
First stop was Figaro's. We pick up this guy in nerd shields and a trench coat in 80 degree weather to grab us some beer. The fella stinks up the car something awful. Then we had to swing by McGroarty's on Market St. to get a styrofoam cooler and ice. I see this little tiny grill all set up with charcoal and everything you'd need to have a bbq. We buy dogs, burgers, buns & the whole lot. Damian drops off me and Kufinski in the middle of the street in front of the Tower Tavern in Westville, out in the open where we have to run 350 feet in plain view... two 16yr old kids each carrying a 30 pack of Natty Light. Plus a grill. Plus all kinds of food. Rediculous. But so far so good.
A)Pond Job
It's me and "Franco." We didn't know eachother too well but I knew he played guitar. I said "Mike, we should start a band. A punk band. 3 chords. It'll be simple." He smirked and said it was a good idea. He didn't think I was serious but within 4 months... Pond Job (which later became the Cuffs which evolved into the Broken Shillelaghs) had our first show. That's it. Me having nothing else to talk about with some kid became the Broken Shillelaghs.
B)Cook?
The rest of the group starts arriving... skewed about 2 at a time. Time to fire up the grill. It wouldn't light for shit. BUT! We had a can of bug spray for some reason. I cooked those dogs with a flaming can of bug spray. You know?.. fire up a lighter and spray the dogs with the subsequent fireball. You wouldn't believe it if I told you but Barcalow & Minix ate an entire pack of Raid-marinated hot dogs. "Thanks Cookie." "Eh... too gay Minix... how about Cook." "A'ight Cook."
C)The Cigarette-Burn
Kufinski had hooked up with this girl Jamie at the Tom Petty concert a couple weeks before. She was Damian's "bestest friend" who he was also in love with. But Damian knew she liked Kufinski and just wanted her to be happy so he acted cool with it. Jamie and Kufinski had got together earlier in the summer. Jamie came down to this bridge-party to see Kufinski... but he didn't know that. He used to be real shy with ladies and also real stupid. Jill is also down there and all over him. This is the first time they hook up. Damian becomes infuriated so much so that he puts a cigarette out on Kufinski's arm while he is so drunk that he was unable to move. (That was the first one. The rest on his arm are all self-inflicted... I said real stupid, remember?)
D)Bestest Friends
Anyone who drank with Damian as a kid knows that he could often become a crying drunk. He used to get all upset and tell us how much we meant to him... but real uncomfortable-like. We're walking down the tracks and Damian is shit-faced. "Kane-eh-dee. (Kennedy) The first word I learned when I came to this country was friend." Kennedy being the dick that he is couldn't just play along. "Asshole... you speak the same language in Ireland as you do here." The next thing you know Damian is walking on the rail, trips, & sprains his ankle. So we carry him from the trestle to the garage and the whole time he's crying and telling us how he's never had friends like us. We're his "bestest friends."
Bestest Friends. We still say it today.