User talk:K. A. Whitman

Bold text Hi, You have told this story about Pete Dexter and Tex Cobb twice and it was not even close to the truth. I am from Philadelphia and read Dexter's column often and met Cobb once or twice. According to the autobiography In the Arms of Strangers by Mark Randolph Conte, the neighborhood this happened in is The Devil's Pocket not Gray's Ferry, a section of tough Irish people known for their brawls and hard nosed people. There is only one street into and out of the Devil's Pocket and if you get in trouble there, you have to pass a gauntlet of houses to get out. There is a section in M. A. Petaccia's book Of Flesh andf Stone, Aberdeen Bay 2009, about the Devil's Pocket. Pete took that name and changed it to God's Pocket for one of his books. In the Devil's Pocket, you not only had to be Irish, you had to be a Devil's Pocket Irish. Pete went into that bar in the Devil's Pocket to be one of the tough guys. It went fine for a while, but when they argued about sports, as men are wont to do, Pete said, "You guys don't know anything about sports." This was not the smartest thing to say in the Devil's Pocket. They beat Pete up and threw him out of the Devil's Pocket. The next day, Pete called his friend Tex Cobb and asked him to go with him into the Pocket to teach those bullies a lesson. The Irish toughs beat both Pete and Tex and threw them both out of the Devil's Pocket. Cobb was hurt so badly, he never fought again and Pete was in a hospital for quite a while. As in most South Philadelphia neighborhoods, the people in the Devil's Pocket can be warm and friendly and be your best friend, but if you cross them, they can be yout worst nightmare.K. A. Whitman (talk) 13:48, 19 March 2011 (UTC) K. A. Whitman K. A. Whitman (talk) 13:48, 19 March 2011 (UTC)