12th & McGraw
by Forrest Haskell
Trade Paperback, July 2004, ISBN 1-9299762-9-1
It
was said by some that knew us that my fathers personality and mine were so intertwined
that when we met face to face there were really six people present. Each of us as he
saw himself, each man as the other person saw him, and each man as he really was.
This theme is the thread that runs through this story and binds it together. It is
the story of a constant struggle for a young man coming of age, immersed in the rackets
and at the same time trying to determine which personality was his and his alone.
Simultaneously his father was coping with the same problem of multiple
personalities. The fact that Forrest Sr. was born into near poverty and in a
somewhat abusive family, gave him a tremendous thirst for wealth. In his quest for
riches, he lets nothing or no one stand in his way, even getting involved in the rackets
in the 1940s in Detroit Michigan. Along the way in his quest for gold, he
encountered many weird and unusual characters, some of whom he hired to help run his
racketeering operations. He also managed to meet a happily married woman and
completely scramble her life to the extent that she bore him children while still married
to another person.
This story also includes chapters of incidents that happened to this strange man involving
episodes of gun play, a secret language and a custom-made automobile that was used as a
rolling bank. It also describes his several racketeering businesses, ranging from
so-called "Blind Pigs" in the Detroit area, which essentially were after hours
gambling and liquor consuming establishments, to a large bookmaking and numbers operation.
Bootlegging Canadian whiskey across the Detroit River in Chris-Craft speedboats was
another one of his activities. He also was the local loan shark and operated several
other peripheral rackets, especially during World War 2. He used secret hiding
places and storage areas that seemed to be something they were not. Not only does
this person have a way of influencing people, he has a very unusual relationship with the
Detroit Police Department, so much so that they would seem to be looking the other way on
incidents that would land everyday citizens in jail for a few years.
It is also revealed near the end of the novel that he had for over 50 years clandestinely
kept another family. He would visit them every other night, while using his other
personality and strange excuses that were accepted unquestioningly by his female partners,
who were madly in love with him and had gotten caught up in his mystical spell and strange
ever changing behavior in life. The end of the novel is a collection of incidents
that took place when these two alienated families come together. Beginning when the
father has a stroke and the subsequent problems related to his care and well being, and
culminating in the revelation of a secret will that further divided the families.
The book ends with the death of this individual and the bazaar incidents that took place at his funeral.
REVIEWS
Top Publications (2007)
ISBN 9781929976294
Reviewed by for Reader Views (7/07)
I was immediately drawn into “12th & McGraw.” In this autobiography, Forrest Haskell, Jr., tells the story of life with his father, Forrest Haskell, Sr. Although it was not an easy life, it was an incredibly interesting life. His father became successful by running several illegal operations. These included bootlegging, gambling, and loan sharking. The characters involved with his dad were incredibly interesting in their eccentricities. I really enjoyed reading about these people; they contributed to bringing the story to life. Mr. Haskell does an excellent job of describing these people and the places that they frequented.
Mr. Haskell’s father was raised by an unstable,
verbally-abusive man. He chose to be a different kind of father. He
raised Mr. Haskell with a good self-esteem and the belief that he could
accomplish anything. This was really positive. Mr. Haskell passed this
gift down to his own children. He also made the choice, as an adult,
not to follow in his father’s footsteps by getting involved in his
illegal operations. His father was a good man in that he let his son
make his own decisions. He wasn’t so good in providing his son with a
stable home environment. The mother of Forrest, Jr. was married to
someone else when his father came into his life. His father was also
married to another woman. Both women had to share him. This was
incredibly painful for the women and their children.
“12th & McGraw,” is an incredibly interesting story that also offers
several lessons on life. Parenting is a big one. Mr. Haskell, Jr.
chose the positive aspects of his fathers parenting skills. He also
learned from the painful lessons that his father taught in regards to
the relationships. All of the children and the two mothers had to live
with the pain of having to share their dad. As his dad slowed down
later in life, he expressed regrets over the damage that he caused from
his decisions. He also made peace with his own father prior to his
death. This part of the story made me reflect upon my own life and
realize that I need to live my life in such a way that I don’t have huge
regrets at the end. His father was sure that he was going to hell.
That is not a very peaceful way to be at the end. He had a great
adventure getting to this point in his life.
I highly recommend this book. It would make a great Father’s Day gift
for a man that loves to read. I am really happy that I had a chance
to enjoy “12th & McGraw.”
Jandy's Book Reviews
Forrest Haskell Sr’s boyhood began in Attleboro, Mass where as a twelve-year-old with an egg route selling eggs for .12 a dozen the writer’s father was already earning and saving a tidy sum. Living on a hard scrabble farm during childhood made the making of money become one of the most important motivators for the writer’s father. Haskell knew the time to leave home and a father with a cruel streak was just after his sixteenth birthday and graduation from high school. Young Haskell arrived in Boston astride a second hand motorcycle, rented a sleeping room and became an orderly at a nearby hospital.
From that humble beginning Haskell went on to move to Detroit in 1934 where he drove a Checker cab, saved money, wanted more, got a second job driving truck for the Sunshine Biscuit Co, and realized more money was to be made from the amusement park industry. In 1940 when the writer was four-years-old, the Mobil Station on 12th and McGraw became the seat for Haskell’s growing businesses. Legal and illegal were both carried on from the site.
Haskell bought a house for Marie Roberts, a French émigré, one block from the Mobil. Marie, married to a man she was loathe to leave for fear she might be deported was to rent out rooms. Young Will Roberts, writer Haskell was given the name of Marie’s husband despite the fact he was Forrest Haskell’s son, was always deeply involved in his father’s life. Sitting in trunk of the car with other children during a rain, covered with a blanket, eating bologna sandwiches and drinking Nu Grape pop, Pearl Harbor 1941 causing car repair to become big business during the war when new cars were not being produced figure in the narrative. Real estate, illegal gambling in the rooms of the many houses owned by Haskell SR, book making, bringing in Canadian liquor, and a boat launching boat near disaster all helped to shape the writer’s personality. A candy machine that was actually a gun safe, loan sharking, warehouse full of tires all were part of the life writer Haskell experienced during his growing up years in Detroit. Young Haskell’s life was rat killing cats/cat killing rats, Carnie Talk, horse betting, and a caring father who taught his son to work, understand the value of money and practice safe sex. The secret life his father shared with a second family was discovered when Forrest was not yet a teen.
Filled with colorful characters bearing as colorful names 12th & Mc Graw is easily read. Fast Eddie, Swede, Jesse James a forty year old college grad numbers man, Tommy Streeter Bain called Streeter, ‘Doctor Freddie’, 12th & Mc Graw offers the reader a peek into the life of an exciting man who did not always play by the rules. The love and admiration felt by writer Haskell for his father is evident beginning to end.
Broken into chapters, 12th & McGraw is an enigmatic quick race spanning the lifetime of a colorful dynamic man who lived life to the fullest. Forrest Wilfred Haskell was a charismatic man who was able to begin with little, amass a fortune, and raise two families in comparative ease during the mid 1900s. Haskell’s later life was spent in relative quiet as he retired to a small farm, continued strong in the lives of both wives and their separate groups of children. Writer Haskell tells of the bittersweet times spent following his mother’s death when he and his wife, his father and ‘the other wife’ met for a trip to Mexico. Writer Haskell was filled with hope that he would prove to be the peacemaker bringing all the siblings together. His father’s stroke, demands for DNA testing from the other family along with their apparent hiding of his father’s assets in addition to his father’s death brought only sadness.
The sadness Haskell felt when he realized his father’s second set of grown children were more interested in preserving his money than in allowing proper medical care for the Sr Haskell following a stroke comes through despite writer Haskell’s carefully chosen words to not appear biased. Haskell’s skilled writing brings the reader to hope that the second family will treat their father with more love and respect. That hope is shattered as we read that Haskell Sr lay in an unmarked grave for two years until the writer discovered the lapse and had a proper monument set in place.
Thought provoking read. Not for melancholy times, but excellent book to read on a long sultry afternoon when time is ample: book is best read cover to cover rather than in snippets. Lovely tribute by a loving son.
