This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,

the show where America is the star and the American people. Up next comes to us a

story from Robin Cook. You know the name. He's the author of 38 best-selling books, a giant

in the literary and publishing field. But the one he is best known for is his second book, Coma, the first true medical thriller ever released.

Today, he's sharing with us his personal story, his life story. Here's Robin.

I was born in Brooklyn and immediately exported to Queens, and then moved over to New Jersey when I was eight.

You know, I have to say that I think that I'm a particularly lucky person

because everything happened seemed at the right time.

If I had continued to grow up in Woodside Queens, in that environment, my life, I think, would have been completely different.

In fact, when I think back on it, I might now be, I'd probably be fairly successful,

but I'd be really involved in organized crime.

I can remember the older kids teaching us young kids how to steal from the store and

and they like to use us young kids because I guess the store proprietor, particularly the candy store,

was less suspicious of young kids, you know, in kindergarten.

And so the older kids would get us to go in and whatnot.

We had what we called the alley behind the house.

It was all row house.

So you had an alley behind.

And that was where at that time, parents just opened the door,

let the kids out into the alley.

And we had full run of the alley from a very,

...