Hope you enjoy...

 Another chapter from my book I was writing. Love reading these back over from my memories. When I read back on these though it makes me realise how important our influence is over the younger generation. I grew up and became what I was surrounded with. I became my Delboy Dad! He was the best though and my wee rebel mum. Love and miss you both every day, you have both made me the man I am today!

Chapter 19 - I'm beginning to get rich!

At about the age of 20 I had over 100k in cash, I had my finger in so many pies and everything I was touching was turning to gold. Me and Capone were building a nice business relationship, I've mentioned previous that Capone was a sofa importer and he brought in some top class leather sofas which I also sold for him too back then, this was another great money maker the way I was selling them.

Capones sofas say cost me £1500, these were really high end quality Italian leather sofas, solid oak framed, triple stitched and Egyptian feather filled! Thats what I said anyhow when selling them,!

I just made up anything that sounded fancy...

Capone had a bit of style about him, he always did and his products was always the best, there was no internet back then and the only way you could advertise stuff was in the papers.

So me being me I came up with my little deceptive ways of selling, funny thats the only thing I've got a criminal record for is deception which you'll read about way later in my life.

But I used to buy these sofas and keep them on the back on my van, they were massive big 3 piece suites that took up the whole van!

I learned that a big fancy furniture shop in Belfast, Reids you called it had a policy that if a sofa does not fit in the house when they are delivering they cant take it back and leave it at the door!

So I thought right! Thats a USP ( unique selling point) for me right there!

I made up fake Reids receipts and would have advertised the sofas in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper saying, ****3 piece suite bought out of Reids cost me £3500 could not fit in house and Reids wont take it back, needs gone asap! Will accept £2000 ono****

When people called me I had my sales patter at the ready, I would be calling Reids all the names under the sun and saying this sofa is in the back of my mates van and I'm absolutely fuming about the whole situation and feel like going back and burning the shop down!

I would say I've even got the receipt here and need this sofa gone asap as its taking up my mates work van which he needs back and I can deliver it right now for £2000!

Many customers didn't even want to look at it, my description over the phone and sales patter was enough and they just said right right bring it over here now, I'll go get the cash. They really believed they were getting a one off bargain!

Off I went and delivered it and right after that I went to Capone and bought another sofa and when another potential customer called enquiring from the same newspaper add they got the whole same sales spiel all over again!

I could have sold 5 sofas from the one add!

Something that always stuck in my head was one guy who bought one off me and paid me something like £2000 for the suite.

Years later when I had a buyers of anything sellers of everything business and I get a call from a guy trying to sell me his second hand sofa, telling me how he bought it for and the whole sales spiel that I told him when selling it and how the sofa is worth a fortune.

Well in that buying business I had a set prices for things that I bought and all I would pay for decent leather suites was £50.

I told him this over the phone and he was a bit taken back but he needed it out of the road fast and I was ready to grab it there and then. He agreed and when I called over he was looking me up and down saying, dont I know you from somewhere? I was like I dont think so man, maybe just one of them faces I'd be saying.

I gave him the £50 for the suite and off I went!

I had some balls on me back then the more I think about it, pure brass neck at times, maybe thats why these days I really dont care about pulling up and phantom planting trees wherever I want and I'll stand there and talk with any council officials defending my actions!

Capone was some character, I've known him all my life, as I've said before he always came round and hung about with my delboy dad. You see my dad was always into making money and lots of people from my estate would gravitate towards him.

My dad was a pretty cool character to be hanging out with, all the young ones loved him and also my dad back in his day was said to have not taken any crap of anyone, Iron head or the anvil was his old nickname, he knocked people out with his head!

But my dad was shrewd, he knew always to look after the younger generations, the young ones always grow up he would say, never be a bully to anyone below you he would say, one day they get big and they might come after you.

My delboy dad earned peoples respect and had the toughest guys in the estate covering his back.

Capone though used to wait up the alleyway out the back of our house waiting until my wee mum went to bingo as many times when he called to our door looking my dad my wee mum would be saying away and hang around with someone your own age! 

Then he would have came in and watched the horse racing with my dad, eating all our crisps and biscuits asking my dad of ways on how to make money and asking him how much money are you worth? Everyon back then thought my dad had millions. Money bags Capone used to call him!

Capone would be wanting to wash my dads car all the time to get money and I always remember him saying to me, make sure you find a rich woman, doesn't matter what they look like make sure they've millions.

Capone must have been around 15-16 years old when he was telling me this, he was obsessed with money and looking back now he manifested it, to this day he's probably one of the most wealthiest people to come from our estate.

But lots of people from the estate didn't like Capone, in later years when he started making money he was flash with it, I remember he picked me up when I was about 10 years old in a convertible car and we would be cruising the estate, he would have had a car phone talking away driving through the estate showing off his new toys, mobiles weren't even thought off back then and he had a handsfree car phone talking away at the top of his voice cruising the hood!

This is something I wouldnt be doing but Capone loved it, he was funny, because I knew him all my life and seen that he used to wash my dads car for a couple of pound and was born in a tin house I always thought fair play to him!

Capone came from nothing and took his chances, he's worked for everything he's got, by hook or by crook he got it.

When you start to make this level of money that he was making from the Getto people start to spread stories about you, my dad always told me about a high ranking paramilitaries man that was wanting Capone dead, they were saying he was selling hard drugs and my dad intervened and helped him out.

I got my contraband from Capone but never once did he ever offer me hard drugs, I wouldn't deal with him if he did. I don't know what it was back then even when I was young but I never really sold hard drugs, I done a little bit before but I hated the people attached to it and it ruins lives!

I've no time for it and never did!

In later years I became addicted to hard drugs like cocaine and amphetamines but not alot of people knew this, I was always a bit of a loner and never would I get my name attached to this.

I also respected my dad too much and his boss man Mr De Niro, the old school paramilitaries are dead against hard drugs and If anyone ever offered me them for sale no matter how much money was involved I wouldn't want anything to do with it.

If I was ever brought in for questioning by De Niro I could look him right in the eye and tell him the truth, I never wanted to ruin my dads name either.

What has happened to Belfast now though, the place is riddled with hard drugs, so sad to see.....

But back to Capone, he loved his poker just like my dad and every Sunday we had a poker school in our kitchen, Capone used to come round with big wads of cash and everyone in the estate was always out to try and win from my dad which very rarely happened!

There was one time Capone lost something like £3000 to my dad and on his way out he slammed our door shut and cracked the glass, someone else in the house said to my dad that he just broke your door!!

My old delboy dad is sitting there as calm as you like with a cig hanging out of his mouth counting his winning saying, he can break it every week if he wants, as he's chuckling away counting the cash.....

That was a long chapter this morning guys, hope you liked it, I love writing it, so emotional doing it, sometimes I think to myself what am I saying and giving away here but then deep down I feel these stories have to be told. I'm getting the hang of the time line too, in the mornings before I write, I meditate and put my mind back to that age mixing in past, present and future and letting it all flow!

If I ever get locked up for doing this I'll be coming out an enlightened levitating novelist.....

As always guys, dont forget to plant a tree, bare root season is here, get your native trees and get phantom planting, do your bit for mother nature, she needs you!

Peace and Love......