Sorry to hear you had to put up with that crap. My dad told similar stories, except he was a three year old boy arriving in the Bronx via Ellis Island in 1927. Germans weren’t very welcome just nine years after WW I ended. Dad learned how to be a good street fighter before they moved to the NY suburbs a few years later.
the Bronx ....... learned how to be a good street fighter .....
If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere............
When I was in the Marines, I had several buddies from NYC.
They could practically tell you what street you lived on from the sound of your voice.
They taught me some, just enough to tell what borough somebody was from.
I love to surprise people by asking them what street they lived on and get the borough correct.
My mother-in-law’s boyfriend is a retired cop from the Bronx, and later Miami PD.
The first thing I said to him when I met him was what street in the Bronx he came from. He was used to people asking what part of NY but not what street!
I did the same thing with a cashier at our local Salvation Army store. She was shocked when I asked her as well.............