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NM: In the early days, and this carries through to the ���60s, the town had, essentially, one on-going tension. That was between the Portuguese and the artists. Some of the Portuguese fishermen were wilder and stronger than any artist you���d ever find. We���d get drunk together and have arm-wrestling contests, often. I remember Bottles was the one guy nobody could ever beat. CB: Bottles? NM: Bottles Souza. He was really good at arm-wrestling. He had a reputation for being the strongest man in town, which was saying a lot in Provincetown in those days when you���ve got all those fishermen. I remember asking him once, ���Bottles, did you ever know Rocky Marciano?��� They were contemporaries. He said, ���Yeah, I knew Rocky. I knew Rocky when.��� I was fascinated. It came over me, sure, he���s the strongest guy in Provincetown, he���s heard about this strong man in Brockton. They were both about 17 or 18. So maybe one day when they are all drunk they get in a car and drive down to Brockton to look up Rocky Marciano and arm-wrestle or something. So I said, ���You knew him?��� ���Yeah,��� he repeated, ���I knew him when.��� I said, ���Bottles, what was he like?��� Bottles looked at me and said, ���Rocky? Rocky was crazy!��� That���s all he ever said about Marciano. CB: I never met Bottles. My local hero, a half generation after your time, was someone perhaps less strong but equally charismatic -Victor Alexander, the goateed bartender at Rosy���s, who wore a gold stud in one ear before it was fashionable. NM: The tension in town then was between the Portuguese, who were Catholic and observant and very family oriented, prodigiously HYLAND 10

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