Betting On Black: The Real Four Brothers

Back in January of 2024, my mother passed away unexpectedly. My family misses her dearly every single day because she was the greatest woman to grace this earth. I started to write down my feelings when she passed because it helped me cope with her death. If you didn't know, my mother, Ilene Black, wrote for our hometown newspaper called The Ewing Observer. She was super creative, witty, and hysterical. I reached out to the editor of the paper and asked if I could continue my mother's column. They obliged. I have been writing for this column for over a year now, and I wanted to start sharing some of the columns I have written. I hope you like them!

If you haven’t seen the movie Four Brothers starring Mark Wahlberg, I suggest you watch it because this story is pretty close. My brother George and I grew up on Theresa Street, and right behind our house was Steinway Avenue. Well, wouldn’t you know, 2 brothers lived directly behind us on Steinway and they became our brothers. We were the original Four Brothers. Jamel Craig was the oldest, my blood brother George was the 2nd oldest, Peyton was the 3rd, and yours truly was the 4th. We were all 2 years apart, and we did everything together! Our backyards backed up to each other, and we would hop the fence and just walk into each other's houses unannounced. Prior to us getting a little older, my brother and Jamel used to throw a ball over the fence back and forth to each other. Peyton got older and joined in on the ball throwing. One day, yours truly showed up, probably about 2 years old, and Jamel says, “Wait, where did that guy come from?” My brother said, “That’s my little brother Donnie.” That is where our journey began.

I don’t remember much about being 2 years old or, therefore, being any age until about 8, but I always remember my blood brother George and my other brothers Jamel and Peyton always being there. Jamel and Peyton’s mom, Dolly, quickly turned into my 2nd mom, and my mom turned into their mom.  Christmas mornings are what I will always remember the most. My brothers would come over with their brand-new pajamas, and we would play the new game on the new gaming system. Peyton went to a different school than the other 3 brothers, so he was driven to school, but Jamel, my bro, and I used to take the bus to Incarnation. Every morning at 7:30 am, Jamel would walk through the back door, and we, the 3 of us, would walk to the corner of Broad and Theresa and wait for the bus. It wouldn’t be funny if I wrote out our inside jokes when cars drove by, but Jamel would sing a song for every brand of car that drove by. A Chevy drove by and we would hear “Chevrolettt hay, yeah.” It was funny to us and still is.

When we were not in school, the 4 brothers used to walk down Broad Street and over the “foot bridge” to get to Golf Land and spend all of our quarters playing the arcades. If you are a “Ewingite,” as my mom called us, you remember Golf Land and the Pizza Hut right next door. Locked doors were not a thing for us. I would walk into my 2nd mom Dolly’s house while she was making dinner and say, “Hey, Mom, what are you making?” My brothers did the same at my house. They would walk right through the back door, say hi to my mom and dad, grab a glass of my mom’s famous iced tea, and go play a video game with us. When it snowed, you better believe we were all out shoveling our parents out, but then we were looking to make money. 4 brothers with 4 shovels charging $20 a driveway to spend it at Golf Land. When “work” was over, we would get a ride from one of our parents to the Municipal Building Hill. We would sled back there for hours. My oldest brother, Jamel, recently texted me and said if you write a column about the 4 brothers, make sure you mention the Municipal Hill. I got you, bro! It snowed a few months ago, and that’s all I thought about. Are Ewing, New Jersey kids still utilizing the Municipal Building Hill? I hope so because it’s a great sledding hill.

Fast forward, and we ended up going to college and going our separate ways. My 2nd mother, Dolly, ended up selling the house on Steinway, and my brother George and I had moved out of our parents' house. Just because we aren’t “neighbors” anymore, we will always be “brothers.”
When I saw the trailer for the movie Four Brothers back in 2005, I texted my brothers and said they made a movie about us, but didn’t include us.

To finish this up… I saw a quote that will help explain this column.
“Blood doesn’t make a family, love and friendship do. You’re my brother from another mother.”