Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Hotshot, 1980Biographical NoteHotshot was born in Long Branch, New Jersey on April 18th, 1914. He was one of seven children. His father died very young, and the state placed him and his two brothers in foster care when his mother could no longer support them alone. His mother remarried after a few years, and he and his siblings returned home. He started working at nine years old at Brookdale Farm in Red Bank, New Jersey as a horse caretaker, a job which he kept for seven years. Hotshot stopped attending school around fifteen years of age, and shortly after, moved to Harlem, New York where he began working as a bartender. He first experimented with drugs in 1930 via sniffing heroin. He got married to his wife of forty years in 1940. He began dealing heroin in 1943, and was arrested and released on probation that same year. In 1950, he bought the dry cleaning business he was working at and owned it until the city took it over in 1955. He then went to work as a redcap in Penn Station, and retired from that job in 1979, the same year he joined a methadone clinic. Hotshot was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived. The name is likely a pseudonym for the project
Scope and ContentsIn this interview, Hotshot discusses his life in New York with special attention towards his drug use. He describes how he became re-addicted to heroin in 1943 by inadvertently inhaling the drug's dust while packaging it for sale. He describes the difference between sniffing and injecting heroin. He discusses his experience of a common side effect of heroin called nodding, in which the user temporarily loses consciousness. He compares the effects of methadone and heroin. He explains the declining quality of heroin in the time he was using it, from the 1930s to the 1970s. He describes how his experience of heroin was initially positive, but became increasingly unpleasant as he continued using. Hotshot also delves into his cycles of self-detoxification and readdiction. He details his experience with drug enforcement, including his brief stint in jail, and subsequent probation. He explains how he purchased a dry cleaning business in 1950, which he owned and operated for five years. He also describes the job he held as a redcap, or porter, in Penn Station from 1955 to 1979, and how he was reintroduced to heroin though his coworkers. Hotshot discusses his motivations for joining a methadone program, and his opinions about the program
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by David Courtwright
| |
