13 Catherine St: Memoir Mondays
Posted by blk1 on June 30, 2008
This is part of a project at Two Writing Teachers
I have to confess right up front that I wasn’t going to write a piece for today, but I just clicked on to Kevin’s piece and I’m inspired to remember my neighborhood and share a bit of my childhood on our block and I am not ready to jump into my digital piece due for our Summer Institute kickoff. What a lovely way to procrastinate…
Most of my Catherine Street memories still vivid are about flirting with danger. It was a neighborhood of boys. My two younger brothers: Jeff and Rick, the 3 Karow brothers: Jeffrey, Glen and Ricky, the Haimes brothers, Mark and Howie, the Sinicks: Wayne and Gary and that was just on Catherine. One block over: Steven and Gary.
With boys of course there’s lots of sports: baseball in summer, basketball on the Karow court in the fall and of course winter is all about snow. But summer was special: outdoors, longer days melting into evenings and the coming of summer.
I was in the older group of kids so even though I was a girl before girls were legitimate for serious sports, I was almost equal to the boys on our block and I could hold my own with a bat and glove( I had my own). We played a loose version of the game depending on the numbers playing. And we had empty lots to chose from although as we lost a lot, we gained more kids to play with.
When my dad built our house and the my aunt’s on the lot across from us there were more empty lots than there were houses or kids. We always had the road and our house was at the end of street, a dead end.
So where was the danger you’re wondering?
The group of players was always changing. With Steven from the other block, (my best friend), my brothers, the younger Karows ,and Howie and Mark we were fine. Everyone seemed to be equal but when Wayne showed up the chemistry changed.
Wayne needed to take charge. He needed to subvert the activity, adding his rules to the game. His dad owned a toy store and we were all envious. He always had something new to entice us with, trap us.
One morning he arrived with a cigarette lighter and some rope and suggested we play pirates. I was always afraid of Wayne in general and today very specifically, especially when he thought I would make the best candidate to walk the plank first.
I didn’t want to play but I couldn’t say no. He had me tied and blindfolded and I could hear the lighter sparking and feel the heat of the flame at my ear and I wondered how I could get away. Seemed like a long time before he stopped the clicking and the talking. Suddenly he pulled off the rope and I grabbed the blindfold as Wayne was being dragged away by his father.
The other kids, my friend Steven were all relieved for me and for themselves.
This was not the end of Wayne but we began to join forces and refuse as a group. The humiliation we witnessed, served us well for the future.
Wayne, he’s still a dark figure who appears in my dreams. It’s a shame I can never resurrect the exciting velvet darkness of hide a seek instead.
I think though summer is a great subject to keep mining.
I will return.
Bonnie
June 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I always worried about the Waynes. I was scared of them, but I worried too. I wanted everyone to have a good life.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Deb,
I don’t want to condemn all Waynes but this one was really evil.
Bonnie
June 30th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Bonnie,
I hope Wayne’s dad was able to continue to set Wayne and exploits on the straight and narrow. I breathed a sigh of relief when you were saved. What is it that makes us afraid to stand up to the bullys in life?!
~jane
July 1st, 2008 at 5:44 am
I was thinking, as I read your piece, how the complexion of our neighborhood changed when someone new came onto the scene. He had been a year in Juvenile detention and had a real swagger about him, and his presence helped create a rift in the neighborhood for some time. Later, he became a close friend — after he could let that guard down and be a real person. But for a while, there was that same danger element that Wayne brought to your neighborhood.
Kevin
July 1st, 2008 at 6:14 am
In our neighborhood, it seemed that as houses went up we were winners because more kids appeared. It was exciting to watch the group outside expand. There were problems of course, but the variety was great. And sure we had some issues, Wayne and then some, but looking back it seemed worthwhile and part of life to deal with the bully and the odd one.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:15 am
Jane, I don’t remember what happened to Wayne when he moved away from our neighborhood, but I think everyone was relieved. I would bet that he had a hard road ahead of him.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Bonnie –
I’m glad you decided to write for Memoir Monday today — your story is one that lingers with the reader. I especially appreciated your last three lines. I hope you share more of your summer memories in this forum — I am anxious to read them.
Happy Writing,
Ruth
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I don’t know why we - kids, adults, citizens of a country - are so immobilized by bullies, but we are. We seem to need to disappear rather than confront. I’m glad you collectively began to refuse Wayne’s bullying. In my neighborhood the bully kid’s name was Charlie. He wrote nasty things on the sidewalk in front of our house with chalk. My parents decided to move to another neighborhood, to protect us from what Charlie and his ilk would bring in the future. I imagine that helped set my stage for a life of non-confrontation! It probably also kept me safe.