Benefits of a Well Spent Youth
When I was 12 years old, me and two friends, Mike L. and Ryan S. were three kids testing the boundaries. We had started shoplifting and had gotten pretty good at it. We could walk into a department store with an empty shopping bag and leave with it full, no problem. We were getting so much shit that we couldn't take it home without some suspicion so we had to sell a lot of stuff we were stealing. Then we had the problem of explaining the money. Most of the time it just went to pinball or fast food but pretty quickly it went to buying pot. Ryan was the one who started that. He even had more cash, as he got a $40 allowance every week while we might have gotten $5 here and there. Looking back, he was the bigger risk taker. He was the first of us to get a job (construction), quit school and start his own contracting company. He was also the guy who in our late teens would pass us in a car at 100mph while he was riding a wheelie on a motorcycle with a girl on the back.
One of the places we would buy pot was at a place called T's Disco near our house. This was 1977 and we were only 11-12 years old but for some reason they would let us three kids in to buy pot. It didn't seem weird then (it was a little scary) but it does now. One time we went inside and to a back room where everyone was dancing and in the corner was a big pile of foam rubber and some kids from the neighborhood were there wrestling. Mike and I jumped in and started wrestling too while Ryan went to get our pot. Thinking back on it now, it sounds like one of those clubs that the Stefan character on SNL would go to.....
'If you want real entertainment go to T's Disco. There's Allman Brother look-a-likes dressed as 1970's black pimps, curious rednecks, girls with shiny tube tops and 12-14 year old southern boys wrestling shirtless....'
Yeah, seems weird now.
We were there another time and hanging out in the parking lot, where the real shit was going on. This was where I first heard the phrase "head" in the biblical sense. My friend's older brother was inquiring about this so called "head" and we couldn't quite put it together. Anyway, two guys got in a fight over one of them accidentally knocking over the other's motorcycle. He kept apologizing but the motorcycle guy wouldn't leave him alone and eventually started kicking the guy's ass. The guy getting his ass kicked eventually pulled a knife and started stabbing this guy over and over. If I remember right, it was like 27 times. The guy didn't die right then but a few days later in the hospital.
NOW...put that aside. We'll come back to that.
As I said earlier about selling our stolen loot, we also mowed yards for cash. Once while mowing, we came upon a nest of baby rabbits. One of the guys took one of the baby rabbits and gave it to his little brother.
So along with T's being a spot to buy pot, we also had a place to buy beer. Yeah, there was a convenience store that would sell 12 year olds beer. Not every 12 year old, just us, due to the big brothers of one of my friends. Still seems weird when I think about it now. My friend's little brother (he was about 7yrs old) takes the baby rabbit in a shoe box up to the store to show everyone. This is where the stabbing story comes back.
The guy who did the stabbing earlier was now out on bail awaiting trail. We all hated that guy anyway. Most of the other older guys were cool with us but he was always a dick. this time no different. He sees this little rabbit and grabs it, squeezes it, says some shit about not caging a wild animal and proceeds to throw it about 100 feet across a vacant lot. The little brother runs home crying and told us about it.
A couple weeks later there was a party for one of the older guys who was joining the army and we knew the bunny tosser/ stabber guy would be going to this. We also knew where he lived. In a tent in the woods behind the cemetery.
Myself, Ryan, and Mike all took the bikeway through the woods to get there. it was kinda creepy. Cemetery, night, woods and off-trail but we needed to be stealth. We get there and without making a plan, we started shredding his tent with our knives, we pulled up all his pot plants and we took his "girlie" magazines.
We tried to smoke the pot (we did smoke the pot) but we didn't understand about buds, drying out, all that but we powered through. We kept the magazines in a spot by the catholic school where we would drink and get high behind a Mary statue until this one older kid kicked my ass because I owed him money so I put a bunch of the pages on sticks and put them up in his family's yard while they were out of town. And the stabber guy ended up in jail a couple weeks later for stealing hamburger meat out of a Wendy's truck and we never saw him again.
Telling this stuff now seems a little crazy but I think times were just different. Whatever, at least I wasn't playing video games.
One of the places we would buy pot was at a place called T's Disco near our house. This was 1977 and we were only 11-12 years old but for some reason they would let us three kids in to buy pot. It didn't seem weird then (it was a little scary) but it does now. One time we went inside and to a back room where everyone was dancing and in the corner was a big pile of foam rubber and some kids from the neighborhood were there wrestling. Mike and I jumped in and started wrestling too while Ryan went to get our pot. Thinking back on it now, it sounds like one of those clubs that the Stefan character on SNL would go to.....
'If you want real entertainment go to T's Disco. There's Allman Brother look-a-likes dressed as 1970's black pimps, curious rednecks, girls with shiny tube tops and 12-14 year old southern boys wrestling shirtless....'
Yeah, seems weird now.
We were there another time and hanging out in the parking lot, where the real shit was going on. This was where I first heard the phrase "head" in the biblical sense. My friend's older brother was inquiring about this so called "head" and we couldn't quite put it together. Anyway, two guys got in a fight over one of them accidentally knocking over the other's motorcycle. He kept apologizing but the motorcycle guy wouldn't leave him alone and eventually started kicking the guy's ass. The guy getting his ass kicked eventually pulled a knife and started stabbing this guy over and over. If I remember right, it was like 27 times. The guy didn't die right then but a few days later in the hospital.
NOW...put that aside. We'll come back to that.
As I said earlier about selling our stolen loot, we also mowed yards for cash. Once while mowing, we came upon a nest of baby rabbits. One of the guys took one of the baby rabbits and gave it to his little brother.
So along with T's being a spot to buy pot, we also had a place to buy beer. Yeah, there was a convenience store that would sell 12 year olds beer. Not every 12 year old, just us, due to the big brothers of one of my friends. Still seems weird when I think about it now. My friend's little brother (he was about 7yrs old) takes the baby rabbit in a shoe box up to the store to show everyone. This is where the stabbing story comes back.
The guy who did the stabbing earlier was now out on bail awaiting trail. We all hated that guy anyway. Most of the other older guys were cool with us but he was always a dick. this time no different. He sees this little rabbit and grabs it, squeezes it, says some shit about not caging a wild animal and proceeds to throw it about 100 feet across a vacant lot. The little brother runs home crying and told us about it.
A couple weeks later there was a party for one of the older guys who was joining the army and we knew the bunny tosser/ stabber guy would be going to this. We also knew where he lived. In a tent in the woods behind the cemetery.
Myself, Ryan, and Mike all took the bikeway through the woods to get there. it was kinda creepy. Cemetery, night, woods and off-trail but we needed to be stealth. We get there and without making a plan, we started shredding his tent with our knives, we pulled up all his pot plants and we took his "girlie" magazines.
We tried to smoke the pot (we did smoke the pot) but we didn't understand about buds, drying out, all that but we powered through. We kept the magazines in a spot by the catholic school where we would drink and get high behind a Mary statue until this one older kid kicked my ass because I owed him money so I put a bunch of the pages on sticks and put them up in his family's yard while they were out of town. And the stabber guy ended up in jail a couple weeks later for stealing hamburger meat out of a Wendy's truck and we never saw him again.
Telling this stuff now seems a little crazy but I think times were just different. Whatever, at least I wasn't playing video games.
