In high school we had a friend name Joey.
Joey’s family was from Italy.
Sometimes Joey would be late for track practice because he had to run “errands” for the family.
If you asked him what kind of “errand” he was running he’d say “family business” and no more.
My brother in law grew up in Springfield, MA of Italian decent. When he was a kid he was a runner. Meaning they would have a kid run the bag of receipts/proceeds for the “numbers” from one location in the city to another.
They always used kids because if they got stopped they would not get arrested. He was told not to look in the paper bag. If you don’t know whats in it, you are not guilty of nothing. Capisce ?
In South Philly and the Bronx, grandmother’s could walk to the corner market at any hour. The best way to suffer a deadly fate was to violate that rule, and a few others. People stayed in their lane, or they were in pieces as crab food in the Mid-Atlantic Oceanic food chain.