WEBSep 9, 2024 · Willem Lange A Yankee Notebook. Sep 7, 2024. Syracuse, New York, in the mid-1950s, a steamy Friday mid-afternoon in July. I had just climbed up for a water break from the manhole I was digging beneath the pavement when a little brown man approached — brown suit, brown shirt and tie, tobacco-brown teeth and fingers. “Hey, Whitey!” he ho….