Word: greenpernt
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...TIME, June 21]. I knew McGuinness well . . . and I never once heard him or anyone else from Greenpoint mispronounce the section's name. . .It is perfectly true that New Yorkers often render "oi" as "er," and vice versa, but I can swear under oath that Greenpoint is called Greenpernt only by people from Coney Island, Croton-on-Hudson and Beverly Hills...
Residents of the Greenpoint (pronounced Greenpernt) section of Brooklyn never really thought Peter J. McGuinness would die. He was an old-fashioned Irish ward boss flourishing improbably in the 20th Century - and he seemed as durable as the last of the cigar-store Indians. Also, he was in such demand as a pallbearer that it was almost impossible to imagine him playing a passive role at a funeral...
...private conversation it was husky and confidential, in public debate it was as penetrating, resonant and hard to shut off as the foghorn at Montauk Light. He had the bearing of a beefy Roman emperor, a lobster-red face and white hair which he wore reached. He thought Greenpernt-its lumber yards, varnish factories, dreary flats and all-was the "garden spot of the universe" and defied the world to find "a more moral race of people" than its citizens...
Peter J. McGuinness had always liked to talk. He was born and raised in Greenpernt and left it only once, to work as a lumber inspector in the South. He soon came back explaining: "I don't like that Jim Crow they got or their goddam white crow either." As a young dock walloper he was the king of Greenpernt's waterfront. He got into a fight every night, flattened everyone he ever fought, and always leaped up on a lumber pile afterwards to give the spectators "a hot spiel...
Last week Peter J. McGuinness, 59, suffered a heart attack, died. When his funeral procession moved slowly down Greenpernt's streets, stores were closed, windows were draped in black, flags flew at half-mast, and thousands lined the curbs to bid him a silent farewell...