So my friend and I decided to walk to Gina’s house one Saturday night. It was about 10 P.M. She lived about 2 miles away. We didn’t really see the problem at the time. Oh, did I forget to mention we were 12 at the time?
So we take off and began one of our many adventures. We searched for secret treasures along the route. We pretended that we were in warzones and had to escape patrolling enemies. We also pretended that we were criminals; bank robbers to be specific and we hid from all approaching cars knowing that they were undercover police officers waiting to arrest us for our misdeeds.
After a long journey, we finally arrived at Gina’s house and our hearts began to race.
Oh yes… Gina. Gina being the pretty girl that all boys had a secret crush on in the 6th grade. Well, all boys that attended the lovely John Adams Elementary. More on that story later…
Gina was definitely in a class of her own. She was a pretty little Italian girl. Pretty, yet mellow and cool. She wasn’t stuck up like her friends. I always wondered why she hung out with them. Peer pressure was such a strong pressure in those days. Somehow I found a way to cut her slack.
I was new to John Adams Elementary in those days. It was tough being the new kid. I remember my first day walking to the Adams rec. center the summer before entering 5th grade. I had just moved to Normal Heights and I had decided to walk down Adam’s Avenue with my little sister to check out the local rec. center.
For the previous 4 years I had been living in Santee. I had been living a rural existence for the past few years of my short youth. I was accustomed to dirt roads. I remember walking down the roads in Santee and walking past horses, pigs, ducks and chickens to get to school.
Now here I was walking down a busy cement road. It was so strange to be in an actual city. I remember arriving at the rec. center with my sister. When we entered the rec. center everybody looked up at us like we were Martians. We felt so out of place. We decided to wait in a line to play foosball. After playing a few games of foosball we went outside to play basketball. My sister watched as I struggled to play basketball for about an hour.
As we were leaving, a big black guy named Jerome began to bug my little sister. He was making rude remarks and he was really pissing me off. I must have been in my chivalrous mode back in my youth because I remember that I would not let anybody get away with teasing my little sister.
One must remember that before this time, I had only seen one black guy in my life. At the time I remember my heart beating so hard I thought it would burst out of my chest. I went up to him and in my deepest voice I said, “Shut the fuck up.” I was so scared. All of a sudden an even bigger black guy came up to me. He looked at me and looked at the other guy and said, “If you guys are going to fight, go ahead I will make sure nobody jumps in.” And this is how my first fight ever began.
The fight was pretty much a draw. Tyrone threw some punches, I threw some punches. I wrestled him to the ground and then it got broken up. After the fight I learned that the “even bigger black guy” was named James and he was the older brother of Tyrone. James would later save my life in high school. More on that story later.
I would later begin my elementary school career and almost from the first day I remember a smart, smug little blonde asshole named David. David somehow possessed a charisma back in those days that drew little boys to him. Although I respected David’s wit, I never felt the draw. David grew strength in belittling others and his friends all grew strength with each new ploy. Being the new guy, David needed to assert his power over me. Or at least try.
David began making fun of the fact that I always wore my USA wrestling jacket. “so, you are a wrestler?” “Wow, you must be a great wrestler”. He made numerous snide remarks but nothing that would ever lead to an all out fight. David was friends with Kenny. Kenny was a big guy. Basically, Kenny was David’s bodyguard and the big guy on campus. Funny that this was even a worry in Elementary School! I mean, really?
One day we were walking down a hallway at school and David had put Kenny up to making fun of me and my jacket. The one thing that David and Kenny did not know was that I actually had been a champion wrestler in the East County and I had travelled all over the United States wrestling in championships. I finally got so mad, listening to the teasing behind me that I turned around and grabbed Kenny and threw him in over my back in my best wrestling move. Kenny ended up in the dirt and I landed on top of him.
Needless to say, I had proved that I was not one to be messed with. From that day forward David never made another comment against me. We both knew that my anger had been directed at him and Kenny was just the receiver of that anger. Kenny would go on to be a good friend and a gentle person… David and I would actually mix it up once more in Junior High at a Palomar Campground retreat. I always will believe that David had internal struggles and could have been a great person if he ever would have come to terms with his inner self….
So here we are hiding in the bushes across the street from Gina’s house. Ah yes Gina. So, Gina was definitely the girl that all the boys were in love with in 5th and 6th grade. I remember all the boys telling me about Gina when I entered 5th grade. “Gina this and Gina that”.
I was confused from the beginning. Perhaps women have been confusing me ever since….
When I first saw the pretty blonde girl I knew immediately that this must be Gina. I passed most of my 5th grade year confusing Carla with Gina. Fortunately for me, Carla lived next door to my new friend. I remember playing games in the alley behind her apartment showing off in hopes she would look out her window. We would eventually connect and I would realize that she was actually Carla and not Gina. We began playing games way back then. We started drinking from her mom’s liquor cabinet. Oh where were the parents?
I remember one day my friend and I were playing in the back alley looking up to Carla’s window and waiting for her to look out. Suddenly, my friend said, “Hey look it’s Gina”. And that was the first time I saw her. I remember thinking, wow… pure beauty.
Being a new student from a different setting, I was too shy to actually talk to her! I remember thinking that all my previous impressions of her from my friends were true. I was now keenly aware of who all the boys had been talking about!
Now here were the following year across the street from her house. Unfortunately, our plans had only been drafted to arrive at her house. We really hadn’t thought past stage one! Now what? Should we knock on the door? The lights were on….
We decided to hide in the bushes across the street and do some surveillance first. We noticed the occasional car going by. We managed to get a good feel for the area. Hey, we were criminals after all….
After about 20 minutes of high tech surveillance we realized that neither of us really had the courage to actually knock on her door… so we made a joint decision to pack in the surveillance operation and we decided it was time to head home.
So we began walking down the street. At some point we came to a crossroad. My friend said that we needed to go right. I insisted he was wrong and that we must go left. I prevailed and we continued on our journey.
After about ½ hour and many blocks down the road, guess who happens to pull up next to us? Yes, a police car… our nemesis had finally caught up to us! He was at least nice enough not to put on the lights and sirens. Had we finally been caught for our bank robbing ways??? He stepped out of the police car and began to walk over to us.
My friend and I were so nervous standing there. Our hearts were really racing now… and we were far away from the comfort of our house! We knew at any moment we would be handcuffed and taken away to live out our youth behind prison doors. As Mr. Policeman was about to arrest us, the passenger door of the police car opens and a lady got out. She began to walk to us. As she got closer we became aware that we both recognized each other.
“Kevin?” she asked surprised.
”Ms. Kay?” I exclaimed even more surprised.
Turns out it was a teacher from our elementary school.
“Where are you going this late at night?” she said.
“Home.” my friend and I answered in uniform.
“And where do you live?” she asked.
“Felton and Monroe,” we stated.
“Well, you must be lying because you are walking in the opposite direction from your home.” She said. Ooops, I guess my friend was right! We had been walking in the opposite direction of his house for over ½ an hour.
Just then Mr. Policeman began to walk closer to us. As he approached, we were once again surprised. It turns out the 12 year old criminal posse had been pulled over by Officer Baker;
John Adams Elementary School’s police liaison.
As we stood there frozen, Officer Baker walked up to us and says, “Well get in!” as he opened up the police car door.
So we ended up getting a police escort back to my friend’s home. I was spending the night with him that night. When we arrived at the home, Officer Baker made us turn the porch light on and off as we entered the house to let him know that we were in safe. We were so nervous that he would want a parent to come out… because in actuality we were all alone! We were the babysitters!
Once we got inside… my friend and I began cracking up hysterically. Why after being driven home by law enforcement and a teacher from our school did we find so much humor in all that had transpired that night? Well, we finally realized that all the rumors were actually true!
Ms. Kay actually was getting it on with Officer Baker! Oh we had a great laugh that night… But we soon realized that it was time for SNL…. And we moved on to more important things.
Gina and many other girls would continue to be a mystery for us as the years progressed… those would continue to be stories that evolved as we grew older. However, from that day forward whenever we saw Ms. Kay or Officer Baker at our school…. we only had to look at each other and an enormous grin would cross our faces. We never did let our friends know about our little secret.
But, oh yes…. Deep down inside we were content in the knowledge that we really were criminals, if even for just a night!!!! Well perhaps not criminals in the actual sense but we were definitely unique.
Of course I learned a lot about being unique as my friendship grew with Trout. Yes, that was my friend’s name. Actually his full name is Justin Cody Trout Fishing in America Rogers. His mom was a hippie or ex hippie. Our youth was filled with unique experiences. We packed a lifetime of adventures into a short amount of time and we grew up fast in that small amount of time. We were free to roam and discover and we took full advantage of the situation. Our childhood adventures had just begun… and they would only get more interesting!
