Monday, June 28, 2004
What If
I must have been eight or nine when we moved from 616 Morningside to 137 Primrose. Geographically if was not a significant move, maybe four miles, but I was moving away from all I knew as a kid to the unknown and that was enough for me to fight. My parents were matter-a-fact about the move and when the actually day came when we were to leave, my father pulled me aside and told me we were a family and we where going to move as a family. I half-heartedly protested but I knew he was right. I didn’t find out until later that my parents were impacted by my stubbornness. My mother thought I wasn’t going to move.
I think the reason why I did not want to move stemmed from fear. I knew no one in the new neighborhood and I was leaving all I knew. Luckily I had a brother. We spent our time playing together and spying on the neighbors. Next door to us was a house of girls. The Brownings had more girls than I could count. Eloise, Katherine, Emily, one might had been named Mary, and a few others that I never learned their names. My brother and I found out a great deal about the Brownings those first few weeks. They shouted a lot, swore, and ran around naked. These were all foreign behaviors for our family and it terrified my brother and me. We thought terrible things about the Brownings.
As the weeks passed Patrick and I got to know a boy down the street, Jonathan Gerwitz. He was older than us and as the way with older boys, loved to have Patrick and I do his bidding. Many times in my life I have taken the role of follower and this was one.
Jonathan was fun. We invented a game he named “Spotlight” that required a high voltage spotlight, tons of kids, and darkness. Basically it was a giant game of hide-and-seek with the exception instead of touching some to make them it, one had to be “Spotlighted” and called out by name to be tagged. We spent many evenings playing this.
The Brownings were never invited to play “Spotlight”.
Another of Jonathan’s brainstorms was having Patrick and I yell at the Brownings. I remember clearly, Jonathan told us what to yell at them: “Your Epidermis is showing”, “You eat glucose”, etc. Patrick and I quickly agreed and peddled off to face the girls.
What happened next would scar me for years to come. Patrick and I yelled our learned lines but the girls did not hesitate to respond. To this day, I have never been witness to such sustained vulgarity. We were so blown away Patrick fell off his bike. I remember looking back at Patrick but thinking I just had to get out of there. I was much too scared to circle back to his rescue.
Years later, in high school, I would eventually talk to Eloise. To my surprise, she was incredibly smart and funny. In math class, she showed me her fake ID. It was a 63 year-old black woman. I laughed so hard I cried.
I think the reason why I did not want to move stemmed from fear. I knew no one in the new neighborhood and I was leaving all I knew. Luckily I had a brother. We spent our time playing together and spying on the neighbors. Next door to us was a house of girls. The Brownings had more girls than I could count. Eloise, Katherine, Emily, one might had been named Mary, and a few others that I never learned their names. My brother and I found out a great deal about the Brownings those first few weeks. They shouted a lot, swore, and ran around naked. These were all foreign behaviors for our family and it terrified my brother and me. We thought terrible things about the Brownings.
As the weeks passed Patrick and I got to know a boy down the street, Jonathan Gerwitz. He was older than us and as the way with older boys, loved to have Patrick and I do his bidding. Many times in my life I have taken the role of follower and this was one.
Jonathan was fun. We invented a game he named “Spotlight” that required a high voltage spotlight, tons of kids, and darkness. Basically it was a giant game of hide-and-seek with the exception instead of touching some to make them it, one had to be “Spotlighted” and called out by name to be tagged. We spent many evenings playing this.
The Brownings were never invited to play “Spotlight”.
Another of Jonathan’s brainstorms was having Patrick and I yell at the Brownings. I remember clearly, Jonathan told us what to yell at them: “Your Epidermis is showing”, “You eat glucose”, etc. Patrick and I quickly agreed and peddled off to face the girls.
What happened next would scar me for years to come. Patrick and I yelled our learned lines but the girls did not hesitate to respond. To this day, I have never been witness to such sustained vulgarity. We were so blown away Patrick fell off his bike. I remember looking back at Patrick but thinking I just had to get out of there. I was much too scared to circle back to his rescue.
Years later, in high school, I would eventually talk to Eloise. To my surprise, she was incredibly smart and funny. In math class, she showed me her fake ID. It was a 63 year-old black woman. I laughed so hard I cried.
