In 1930, a six-year-old boy named Mario, looks out of his bedroom window and witnesses a murder. He is terrified when questioned by the police so he refuses to identify the shooter, and a friendly close allegiance develops between Mario and the mafia hit man, Richie Rio. Mario struggles to survive in New York City's East Harlem, an environment plagued with roaches, bed bugs and rats running around a four room cold water flat, which he shares with his six brothers and three sisters. Mario lives in constant fear of his alcoholic father, an unemployed laborer, who frequently beats his wife and shoots rats off the kitchen table with his 45-caliber pistol for fun. Mario's friend Richie Rio owns a pool hall on Pleasant Avenue during the prohibition era. Richie is mob connected with the Italian Mafia and helps Mario survive the brutal streets of Pleasant Avenue in the mid 1930's and 1940's. In late 1945, Mario is drafted and assigned to work on the Manhattan Project (Atomic Bomb), at Sandia Base, New Mexico. He is threatened by Communist spies to reveal top-secret government information. Mario in fear for his life and unwilling to reveal classified information calls on his friend Riche Rio and the 16th street mob for help. "Pleasant Avenue: The Way It Was", tells the story of Italian immigrants surviving in the slums of Pleasant Avenue on New York City's East -side. Told thru the eyes of an Italian-American boy growing up during he great depression. From his early days as a young boy growing up on the real streets of little Italy to the origins of the real Italian mob to his contribution in World War II and finally his participation in Manhattan Project and the spies who tried to steal top secret classified information from the military installation known as Sandia Base, Albuquerque, New Mexico.