there had been , during the years that fat charlie was growing up , a number of candidates for the worst thing about his father : his roving eye and equally as adventurous fingers , at least according to the young ladies of the area , who would complain to fat charlie 's mother , and then there would be trouble ; the little black cigarillos , which he called cheroots , which he smoked , the smell of which clung to everything he touched ; his fondness for a peculiar shuffling form of tap dancing only ever fashionable , fat charlie suspected , for half an hour in harlem in the1920 s ; his total and invincible ignorance about current world affairs , combined with his apparent conviction that sitcoms were half-hour-long insights into the lives and struggles of real people .