Kenny, Aida and Verbal Abuse

During the time that THE BOB had become a major "player" in the lives of The Boys, Kenny had become interested in a sophomore girl named Aida. I had originally met her earlier that year, and after a period of chasing her around, and finding out she merely liked me as "a friend" I gave up. Kenny had yet to learn what a cold fish she really was. While he walked her to class, and waited for her each morning, I scouted the school grounds for a girlfriend of my own.

While most of the girls that I was interested in either had boyfriends, or did not like me in the same way, there was one girl that I had noticed while I waited outside of my weight training class; she'd pass me in the hall on her way to her volleyball class, dressed in burgundy gym tights. While she never seemed to notice me, I vowed at some point in the near future, to meet her.

While I planned my future meeting with this *mysterious dark haired girl with big dark eyes" Kenny was making plans of his own. After numerous attempts to get some sort of answer out of Aida to whether or not she would go out with him, during our usual morning meeting, Kenny told us that he planned to confront her. Kenny explained that as she approached the corner The Boys would start chanting "verbal abuse" as she got closer to where Kenny would be standing. We would start out low and get increasingly louder as she approached and once she was near us we would stop. Kenny would then step up to her, and in doing so, ask her for an explanation as to what her intentions were. We did exactly what we had planned, and Kenny received his answer. By the look on his face, as we looked on, we knew what she'd said even before he'd relayed the information to us. As with me, she only liked him as a friend.

Later that spring, in early June, The Boys lost Kenny and Ray to the graduating class of 1982. We that remained, most as returning seniors in the fall, mulled over what this meant to our group, but with summer approaching quickly, we were more interested in finding girlfriends, and planning how to spend the two months of relative freedom that was looming before us.

Kenny and Jeff after a workout in Franz's Basement - Summer 1982

The Summer of 1982 began (unofficially) on a warm summer evening just before high school regents were to begin. I was seventeen years old and was attending my junior year at Evander Childs High School in the Bronx. That June evening after riding my bike around Elizabeth's block (my then current on and off infatuation) as usual I had left unfulfilled. While I rode home afterwards down Webster Avenue, as I rode past 205th Street someone called my name. I stopped to see who it was, and saw that it was my friend, Kenny. While Kenny and I had become pretty good friends in school, we had never gotten together out outside of it. He asked me where I was coming from and we talked for a couple of minutes. Due to my wistful state of mind, and the beauty of the night we agreed that a cold beer would taste fine. We walked down to the corner store, bought a six pack of Michelob and took it across the street. As we sat down on the sidewalk we opened our beers and sat with our backs against the still sun-warmed apartment building. While drinking we discussed the futility of our "relationships" with the girls that were interested in.While neither one of us had a steady girlfriend at the time, there were girls that we both were interested in. Despite these girlsą noncommittal attitudes it was cool; there were still good friends, good music and good beer to fill the void.

We spoke of other topics, which at the time were all that mattered. Whether it was working out with weights, the music we were into or the hoaxes that we perpetuated in school, all were equally relevant. While the conversation was good, the beer cold and the weather uncannily perfect, what was ultimately most important to me then was the nameless feeling that all of these combined had brought. Maybe it was the beer, or maybe the feeling of camadarie or perhaps it was the promise of things to come. While I believe that it was, in part, the combination of all three, I also believe that there was something more. This was a time of magic where there still existed that nameless feeling that a guy has when he's living in a period in his life where although everything is not perfect, the ideal of perfection still exists. No matter how screwed up the world was, we were nonetheless in full control of our own destinies, and knew exactly what we wanted out of life. What exactly it was that gave me those feelings, I am not certain. Suffice it to say, however, that this "chance" meeting between Kenny and I led to what was the most unforgettably perfect summer, and time, in my life. Not only was I seventeen, but I knew exactly what I wanted, and was sure that I would get it, when the time was right...