"The Boys"

Even in the 1980s, Evander Childs was considered a “bad” school. Although I had taken a test, and had been accepted to the specialized high school Manhattan Vocational (which focused mainly on drafting and architecture) I decided to ignore all of my friend’s warnings, and attend Evander instead. The fact that the school was close to my neighborhood, and I knew at least two junior high school friends that were also going there I figured I would have little trouble fitting in. Despite the reputation the school did have, during the four years that I spent there I had some of the best times of my life.

Looking back, it all began with "The Boys." As a group, we originally started hanging out in the fall of 1981. The majority of us were juniors, but we also had friends that were seniors as well. As a group, our origin began when my friend Herb and I decided to meet daily, a half an hour before school began, on the corner on Gun Hill and Barnes Avenue. Herb and I had been friends since our sophomore year, and on these mornings we’d meet and discuss what we’d be doing during the day while attending, and in between classes. If one of us liked a girl we’d talk over what we should do in the situation; if someone was giving us trouble, we’d plan a proper retaliation. In this way our days became less tedious, and it was always cool to know you’d have “back-up” in any situation that arose.

As the term progressed other friends of ours began arriving early as well. Ray and Kenny, two seniors, helped to form the nucleus of our group and eventually other tenth graders that we knew, Catalino, John, Luis, and later, Cano, Tomasino, Al and Pedro, joined us as well. Our corner had initially been claimed by a group of the school's homeboys, and at other times a group of Jamaican soccer players but as the spring of 1982 approached each day one of us planned to arrive early enough to claim the area as our own. As our numbers grew the other two groups gave up, and in staking claim to the area Ray carved our names onto the one of the fence poles. Under the heading "The Boys" our names grew from the original four of us to what eventually became nine or ten.

With Kenny and Ray in our midst, our morning meetings turned into real planning sessions for what became a series of hoaxes against other students that had managed to insult, or cross one of us. Ray, who bore an uncanny resemblance to late comedian John Belushi, and Kenny joined Herb and I as the leaders of The Boys, and during the last few months of school we planned some of the most mischievous, and outright fun pranks imaginable.

One of the most successful hoaxes perpetuated by "The Boys" was played on a junior in Pedro’s class named Luis. Pedro told us that Luis believed his DA hairstyle made him look like Elvis Presley, and became enraged when Pedro insisted that it didn’t. Feeling that Luis had insulted our friend, he became our next target. Seeing him ourselves, Herb commented, “That guy thinks he looks like Elvis? He looks more like a potato head to me.” Ray responded, Potato-Head … yeah …” … and the nickname stuck.

At first the tricks we played on him were playful. Every once in a while we’d tell him how much he looked like The King and ask him to dance like Elvis while in the hallway between classes. While Luis danced, we'd compliment him, while all of the other passing students would look at him like he was crazy. Later that month Ray came up with an idea that would eventually land us all in the Dean's office.

Ray explained that if we really wanted to get Luis under our thumbs, we should create a fictitious person that had an interest in Luis’s life. Ray suggested "The Bob" and the name was just ludicrous enough that we all agreed. The following morning he gave each one of us a decal that proudly proclaimed “THE BOB” in red, capital letters that we all ended up sticking to the front of our loose-leaf binders. Later that day we showed Luis our books, and told him that The Bob was an older guy we knew who lived on Olinville Avenue. Apparently The Bob had seen Luis talking to his girlfriend Linda, and was keeping an “eye” on him. We went on to tell him that since we were friends with The Bob, but also friends with him we felt it was our duty to intercede to keep the peace between them.

As the weeks progressed we built Luis up with tales of how impressive his dancing was, and how much like The King he looked. On a daily basis one of us would add that The Bob had heard of his skills, and was doubly impressed; in fact he was thinking of giving Luis a gift in honor of his achievements. When we asked what Luis would like he said, “I’d love a pair of fancy purple shoes, just like Elvis sang about in the song Blue Suede Shoes.” We promised to relay the message to The Bob, and Luis waited in anticipation.

The morning that Luis was to receive his "gift" finally arrived. A group of us met him in the hallway during the change between the fourth and fifth periods to give him his gift. As he held the brightly wrapped package, which was obviously a shoe box, he shook it, and exclaimed in awe, “Maybe it really is a pair of fancy, purple shoes. Is it, is it?” None of us claimed to know, and we told him to wait till after he’d gone to lunch to open the box. When Herb and I saw him later that afternoon we asked him how he liked his gift. In a dejected tone he responded, “Someone played a trick on me.” He opened the box for us; inside, instead of a pair of the shiny, purple shoes that he'd longed for, the box held six potatoes, all with faces drawn on them. (The Boys had all contributed one each, and the one that Ray had brought in had hair, in a DA style, made out of yarn; Luis missed the connection.) Herb and I shook our heads, and dejectedly commented on how “messed up” it was that someone would do that, and promised to get to the bottom of it.

A week passed, and the culmination of The Bob's involvement in Luis' life was on the day Luis's father came to school and told Dean Kava the stories Luis had been telling him of The Bob’s involvement in his son’s life. One by one each one of The Boys was called to the Dean's office to tell his side of the story. While we all feigned innocence, the square black sticker with bold red letters that boldly shouted the name, "THE BOB" on our notebooks said otherwise. We were all threatened with suspension if our behavior continued but ultimately we were only made to apologize to Luis for our role in the pranks we'd played over the past month. While outwardly we grumbled and plotted revenge, our onslaught against Luis was effectively ended.