*Zeitgeist enters the streets clutching a ragged bunch of notes and documents that look as if they had been through a lot in their time, he looked around cautiously for a soapbox to stand on. Gathering himself he stood tall on top of the box on the street corner as a small group of fellow mobsters began to approach*

Ladies and gentleman today I bring you something quite special, as I was searching through some of my ancestor's things and discovered a relative treasure trove of memories from days gone by in this thing of ours. I was sharing some of these memories with some colleagues who are of newer lineages to this thing of ours and they were quite enthralled by how our world has changed. I thought I would read some excerpts from the journal to highlight some of these changes.

*Zeitgeist takes a moment to look through the journal and finds a mention to how our ancestors would throw jail parties...*

Instructions for throwing a jail party

• A high ranking mafioso attempt to sell drugs, directly in front of the police and intentionally get caught
• All the inexperienced jail breakers would intentionally fail to bust the high ranking mafioso out in order to populate the jail as much as popular
• Once the jail has reached a decent population we would call in the skilled busters to bust them out, and allow the junior members time to practice and enhance their skills
• The pro's would continue to bust them out, all the while ensuring the jail maintained a few well guarded members to train on
• This was often ritualised and an an event orchestrated by the Don and one all members use to revel in participating in.

*Zeitgeist pauses and remembers his ancestors telling him these bizarre tales when seemingly the police were not corrupt enough to accept bribes to lock down the city, but inept enough to constantly allow members to escape... Zeitgeist reaches for another document and begins to read aloud once more*

Prices are sky high! 

In my day things were different, business was booming and the demand for drugs was higher than ever. A time before drug front's you would be doing your rounds selling drugs, when demand would instantly push the demand for drugs sky high and a notice would be sent around to all dealers in the area stating "Prices for Heroin are SKY HIGH right now". We use to be able to pull $15k for a unit sometimes my boy, how much are you earning these days?...

*Zeitgeist looks through the logs of his drug deals for the week and is extremely envious of what a $15k per heroin market would be like for business, he thinks for a moment "Oh if only". Zeitgeist reaches for a sip of his water before flipping to the next page and starts to read once more*

The death of Bubba.

Jail use to be a much scarier place in my day. There were no amusing scribblings on the wall, no corrupt officials to keep you safe, serving a full sentence was a common occurence. You were literally stuck there with your face pressed against the bars with nothing in the world to do, and very often no one to save you. The worst part of the experience was that Bubba.... would, take advantage of you out of no-where. I am not sure what happened to him, but I was so thankful when he finally stopped... well, you know.

*Zeitgeist giggles at the vague recollection of Bubba before lowering his arms to his sides and addressing the now sizeable crowd*

I hope you've enjoyed some of these tales of my ancestor's journal, I'd love to hear some of your own family memories, please let me know if you've enjoyed these and I'd be happy to share more with you all!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Zeitgeist. I'd love to see more of these, personally. Reminds of the days of 150-200... I don't even recall the maximum numbers... person crews, with subcrews of 15-20 people... those were the days indeed.

*Zeitgeist looks over at GavinAndTaraByrne and smiles, he had known her lineage for generations and wasn't surprised that it would be someone from a long lineage who was able to find the nostalgic joy in some of Zeitgeist's family recollections. He had brought a few more memories of day's gone by to share with the masses. He reached into his pocket to grab another page of the diary*

The Big Easy

"Let me tell you boy, New Orleans use to be the greatest city to work in. Warm weather, exceptional food, Mardi Gras, Riverboat casinos, the combination of booming opportunities for organized crime and lifestyle meant it was easily the best place to set up an office. Your great great grandfather picked up his first job in New Orleans working for the legendary Lia Vazzi, that was many, many years ago now. Your family's first ever office of their own was in New Orleans, it has been a very significant city to our line and I am really sad it's no longer a part of our world"

*Zeitgeist paused to reflect for a moment and wonder what it might be like to run a business out of New Orleans, and did hope that maybe; one day, he might get the chance to go back to that great city. He searched through his jacket pocket for the next memory to share* 

The Death of Gimpanzee

"This is a sad story my boy, but honestly also quite a funny one. Many years ago gun laws were quite different and indeed firearms themselves operated very differently, the best method for operating a firearm in those days was known as "The Three Window Method", I won't bore you with the details but it was a lot more complex than the simple, fancy things you use these days. There had been a few issues with it before the Gimpanzee incident but basically the way things were structured left a lot of room for error. Gimpanzee had been well trained with the "Three Window Method" and was preparing for an assassination that he and a number of prominent killers of the time were competing for. He had everything set up, primed aimed and ready, he shot... he hit. The only problem was that he had been aiming at himself, these was mass confusion amongst leaders at the time, and a frantic search for witnesses before someone came forward and said they had witnessed the entire thing. It was bizarre and facilitated a large number of changes with how guns work"

*Zeitgeist chuckled to himself, it was a bit morbid but somewhat hilarious and even to this day Gimpanzee's line is constantly reminded of this incident. Zeitgeist reached in and grabbed one final note from his pocket*

200 Man Headquarters

"Listen here boy, in the old world there were much fewer families to choose from, you had very few choices where you worked and the size of the family represented this with some families hitting 200 members. There were no Godfather's in those days and making money was much harder. I love remembering these massive offices but I am quite happy with the way the world is structured, it makes it more open for everyone and true to the American Dream we all have a chance for greatness. It's still important to remember the way the world was my boy, never forget"

*Zeitgeist walked off into the night*