As a kid I lived on many military bases. The streets are usually crescent shaped. It was unheard of to be friends with kids that lived on the OTHER side of the 'U'. You could hang out in school but, after hours, your side of the street was like your gang, especially in the summer.
I remember a particularly violent war we had with the 'bad side' of Petawawa Cres on CFB Shilo. We armed ourselves with garbage can lids and long sticks as we rode our bikes through their 'territory'. More often than not you ended up crashing your bike and taking a beating with rocks or fists because you couldn't work the shield/lance combination like you thought you could.
Once, after scouting a construction site after hours, we found a box of heavy ball bearings. It was like we just won the neighborhood arm's race. They were easier to throw and did more damage than ordinary rocks. So much damage that when you beaned a kid he more often than not went home and that reduced his gang's ranks.
Once when we thought we had sent enough of the other side home, we planned a victory bike ride through their territory. To stop us the remaining kids had the bright idea to lie down on the street, thinking we would stop and turn around. We didn't. We ran right over them and rode away with their screams echoing in our ears.
That incident got the parent's involved and soon the inter-crescent wars were over - except for the exaggerated stories we told or our exploits. Good Times.
%20(002).jpg)
8 comments:
Intertribal warfare was alive and well on suburban Canadian streets in those days. What we wouldn't have given for a box of ball bearings.
Try that today, though, and you'd be sent for psychological counselling before you could say A.D.H.D.
And I wouldn't have blamed them one bit if they had sent me to the councilor. I was a strange little kid. I would be obstinate and stand up for issues and other kids when they were pushed around by 'the man'.
The truth is finally out!
You folks have been blaming us for years about gang activity moving north. Now we know, it was actually the other way around....
great post Kal...
Sure Pat, gansters with teddy bears and big boy diapers.
I think this '60 Second Stories' idea will produce many interesting posts.
Loved this Cal. We had the same thing going on in Tucson back when I was growing up in the late 50's. It was the gang from Peach and Magnolia street aginst us, the gang from Citrus st. Funny thing, I ended up being good friends with one of my chief adversaries from Peach st.
Well that is the way it is when you live in Fruitville. Eventually it can no longer be about the hate and becomes about the love.
Hah. Lil' Warrior Cal.
Ball Bearings are cool, even for Neanderthal Cal.
Post a Comment