Today for some reason I've been thinking about Tony Maceo, who by all accounts is a strange man. I haven't seen him in about a year and a half and I don't know why of all days he came to mind but I think I'm going to say a bit about him.
In my opinion Sgt. Maceo is teller of tall tales. I never knew when to believe a word that came out of his mouth. I first met him when I was running a little video store in 2002 and he would come in and talk you to death. He was one of the sorts of customers that would come in during the slow part of the night and stand around and chat. The reason he was a little less than tolerable was that I didn't really believe most of the things that came out of his mouth.
With a name like Anthony Maceo it might conjure up an image of a wiry little italian. In fact Maceo was a tall black man in his early-40's with a military cut flat top haircut and a pencil mustache. That he was military was a given. You could tell by his bearing. Everything else was up for grabs. He claimed to be a chemical weapons expert but having never exceeded the rank of Sgt. I wasn't so sure I believed that. He would stand there and describe in detail what would happen to you if you were exposed to various gases that the United States had stockpiled. Additionally, he claimed to be a judo expert and insisted that he taught lessons in North Little Rock. This seemed a bit more credible given that he was a former marine.
The last time I saw Maceo he cornered me in a Barnes and Noble cafe and sat himself down at my table as I was trying to read articles for a paper I had to write. It was around Christmas and he seemed to have little enough to do other than hound people that he knew in passing. As soon as he sat down I knew what was coming and immediately started considering ways to escape the coming story. I wasn't so lucky and somehow we got onto faith.
Up until that point I had never realized what a deeply spiritual man Maceo was. Still my problem was the same as any other time he told a story... I didn't know what to believe. I wish now that I could remember all the details but it was a strange story. Furthermore, I'll probably never be as gifted a story teller as he. He said that as a young man he had been "wicked" and a tough. He out on the street surviving and would have died. An old woman took pity on him and brought him into her house in exchange for work that he did. Apparently this old woman was in the habit of collecting strays and also had a whore living there as well. Her one stipulation was that Tony would never touch her. That wasn't going to happen under her roof. She would read the Bible at night and would always invite Maceo to read it with her which he always refused. One day he picked it up on his own and "it got down in" him. So he studied and worked. His failing came the day the whores pimp came for her. He came up into the house demanding that she go with him and he said "Hell no" and fought with him. I wish I could impress on you the way in which recounted this. Like I said I never believed a word coming out of this mans mouth for the most part and he framed this fight like it was the struggle of Jacob with the angel of the Lord. Totally bizarre. Even in winning though he lost.
He told me about the things he saw in the first Iraq about how evil he felt war was. How he hated being asked to kill. How the members of his platoon (or troop, or whatever they're called) could be as dangerous as the enemy. How when men commited atrocity all had to be on board or they had to be dead. He told me that after seeing something he shouldn't have he refused to participate in troops deeds and had his life threatened for it.
...alright that's enough for today...maybe I'll talk some more about what he told me later... man was crazy.
In my opinion Sgt. Maceo is teller of tall tales. I never knew when to believe a word that came out of his mouth. I first met him when I was running a little video store in 2002 and he would come in and talk you to death. He was one of the sorts of customers that would come in during the slow part of the night and stand around and chat. The reason he was a little less than tolerable was that I didn't really believe most of the things that came out of his mouth.
With a name like Anthony Maceo it might conjure up an image of a wiry little italian. In fact Maceo was a tall black man in his early-40's with a military cut flat top haircut and a pencil mustache. That he was military was a given. You could tell by his bearing. Everything else was up for grabs. He claimed to be a chemical weapons expert but having never exceeded the rank of Sgt. I wasn't so sure I believed that. He would stand there and describe in detail what would happen to you if you were exposed to various gases that the United States had stockpiled. Additionally, he claimed to be a judo expert and insisted that he taught lessons in North Little Rock. This seemed a bit more credible given that he was a former marine.
The last time I saw Maceo he cornered me in a Barnes and Noble cafe and sat himself down at my table as I was trying to read articles for a paper I had to write. It was around Christmas and he seemed to have little enough to do other than hound people that he knew in passing. As soon as he sat down I knew what was coming and immediately started considering ways to escape the coming story. I wasn't so lucky and somehow we got onto faith.
Up until that point I had never realized what a deeply spiritual man Maceo was. Still my problem was the same as any other time he told a story... I didn't know what to believe. I wish now that I could remember all the details but it was a strange story. Furthermore, I'll probably never be as gifted a story teller as he. He said that as a young man he had been "wicked" and a tough. He out on the street surviving and would have died. An old woman took pity on him and brought him into her house in exchange for work that he did. Apparently this old woman was in the habit of collecting strays and also had a whore living there as well. Her one stipulation was that Tony would never touch her. That wasn't going to happen under her roof. She would read the Bible at night and would always invite Maceo to read it with her which he always refused. One day he picked it up on his own and "it got down in" him. So he studied and worked. His failing came the day the whores pimp came for her. He came up into the house demanding that she go with him and he said "Hell no" and fought with him. I wish I could impress on you the way in which recounted this. Like I said I never believed a word coming out of this mans mouth for the most part and he framed this fight like it was the struggle of Jacob with the angel of the Lord. Totally bizarre. Even in winning though he lost.
He told me about the things he saw in the first Iraq about how evil he felt war was. How he hated being asked to kill. How the members of his platoon (or troop, or whatever they're called) could be as dangerous as the enemy. How when men commited atrocity all had to be on board or they had to be dead. He told me that after seeing something he shouldn't have he refused to participate in troops deeds and had his life threatened for it.
...alright that's enough for today...maybe I'll talk some more about what he told me later... man was crazy.
