Willie Pep 1943

	FROM THE BOOKS
	One night up at Crystal Lake I boxed twice and at the end of the night I had fifty dollars. I also had my eye on a sports jacket and a pair of pants that cost ten dollars, but I knew that if I took the fifty dollars home, my father would give me only a couple of bucks. So I took ten dollars and hid it. I went home that night with forty dollars, and Ma said, "Willie, where did you get this money?" I told her I made it boxing. At that time my father was working at the WPA for fifteen dollars a week. When my dad came home Ma said, "Willie brought home forty dollars. Maybe he did somethin' wrong?" You know, after all, they didn't really know, and I'd been gone all day. So my father took me into the other room, closed the door and said, "Where did you get this money? You can tell me. You know your mother." I said, "Dad, I boxed tonight. I boxed tonight and I got forty dollars." All this time the ten dollars was almost burning in my shoe. He said he thought forty bucks was good money for boxing and then he reached over and gave me two dollars. Then he said, "If you fought tonight and you get forty dollars see if you can fight twice a week from now on." My old man, he was a sports fan. That's how I got my start.
	Willie Pep remembers... Friday's Heroes