steve Ypsi
11-20-2007, 07:37 PM
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The fall of 1949 we started school, I had turned 8 in July, My Dad had Died two Days before My 8th Birthday, with him gone the hard times were just starting and would get a lot worse in the next 5 years but that fall we still had a little bit of money to by the extra's like milk at school. It cost 2 cent's back then, we all carried a lunch that first year most of the time and it would consist of home made bread and peanut butter . about half the time My mother had the 2 cent's for milk, later in the year that wouldn't be true as the money ran out.
I was excited to get back to see the other kids you never saw all summer because they lived about 3 miles away, we walked about 1 1/2 miles to school and they did to coming from the opposite direction that's why we didn't see them all summer.
As I would start walking to school a kid here and there would join up to walk together, By the time I got to the school there would be 5 or 6 of us walking together.
Every thing was Great until Billy Big Head showed up on our way to school. the first time I saw him I was walking with 2 other boys when he popped out from some bush's in front of us. He said Gimme your Milk Money or I will beat you up, well this day I didn't have any but my 2 friends did, they handed over there 2 cent's and I said I don't have any, he pushed me down and checked my pockets, he couldn't find any so he threw dirt in my face while I was on the ground, he said you better have it the next time or you are going to get beat up.
Billy Big head went to another school and just happened to cross our path going to his school, He was called Billy Big head but never to his face, he had a larger than normal head and his hair stuck out straight like he just woke up giving his head a even larger appearance, he was a lot bigger than us, we heard that he had been held back and was in about the same grade as we were but 2 to 3 year's older, he was very dirty and always had food bits in his teeth that were crooked like a croc's teeth when he confronted us.
He didn't always show up every day, just when we thought he was gone he would come out from a bush or building demanding our Milk money.we either gave it to him or if we didn't have it we would get pushed down and the usual dirt in the face.
well we started talking about us beating him up but that never materialized because of one thing !!!! FEAR stopped us !!!. then we adopted the Deer mentality, **See and Flee *** as soon as we saw him we would all take off running as hard and fast as our little feet could carry us to the school, Billy Big Head was fast but this meant he was only going to get one of us instead of 3 or 4 of us.
that wasn't working to well so well as eventually got all of us so we joined with a couple more boys on the way to school, this made 5 or 6 of us and now we were a herd of Buffalo that could stand up to the Lion Billy Big head, that worked all of 2 minutes, we were walking to school six strong one day when Billy big Head popped out demanding his money. well after a minute or so the herd broke and started handing him the 2 cent's and the one's that didn't have it ran for their lives.
some thing had to give, most of the time I didn't have the 2 cent's and was getting tired of Billy Big Head pushing me down.
on the way from school we would talk about our next strategy to defeat this big stupid kid. I don't know who thought of it but we had it the perfect plan. we all had sling shots and were pretty good with them, we knew we couldn't use the usual rock ammo because we would get in trouble with the law, some one came up with Beans, dried navy beans, they would hurt like Heck but wouldn't break the skin.
we carried our sling shots for a few days and sure enough Billy Big Head pops out of the bush's demanding his money, we all reached and loaded the beans in a flash, I could only describe it as a flock of birds turning in unison the way we grabbed those sling shots and loaded, we fired almost as one, Billy big Head got hit in the upper body and His Big head, he was hollering like he was stung by hornets throwing his hands and arms up to cover that large head, we reloaded and fired as fast as we could and he was on the run about the third round of firing and we continued until he got out of range of the beans.
needless to say Billy Big Head was never seen again on the way to school. the one thing good about Billy Big Head was he kept us in shape running for our lives.
The fall of 1949 we started school, I had turned 8 in July, My Dad had Died two Days before My 8th Birthday, with him gone the hard times were just starting and would get a lot worse in the next 5 years but that fall we still had a little bit of money to by the extra's like milk at school. It cost 2 cent's back then, we all carried a lunch that first year most of the time and it would consist of home made bread and peanut butter . about half the time My mother had the 2 cent's for milk, later in the year that wouldn't be true as the money ran out.
I was excited to get back to see the other kids you never saw all summer because they lived about 3 miles away, we walked about 1 1/2 miles to school and they did to coming from the opposite direction that's why we didn't see them all summer.
As I would start walking to school a kid here and there would join up to walk together, By the time I got to the school there would be 5 or 6 of us walking together.
Every thing was Great until Billy Big Head showed up on our way to school. the first time I saw him I was walking with 2 other boys when he popped out from some bush's in front of us. He said Gimme your Milk Money or I will beat you up, well this day I didn't have any but my 2 friends did, they handed over there 2 cent's and I said I don't have any, he pushed me down and checked my pockets, he couldn't find any so he threw dirt in my face while I was on the ground, he said you better have it the next time or you are going to get beat up.
Billy Big head went to another school and just happened to cross our path going to his school, He was called Billy Big head but never to his face, he had a larger than normal head and his hair stuck out straight like he just woke up giving his head a even larger appearance, he was a lot bigger than us, we heard that he had been held back and was in about the same grade as we were but 2 to 3 year's older, he was very dirty and always had food bits in his teeth that were crooked like a croc's teeth when he confronted us.
He didn't always show up every day, just when we thought he was gone he would come out from a bush or building demanding our Milk money.we either gave it to him or if we didn't have it we would get pushed down and the usual dirt in the face.
well we started talking about us beating him up but that never materialized because of one thing !!!! FEAR stopped us !!!. then we adopted the Deer mentality, **See and Flee *** as soon as we saw him we would all take off running as hard and fast as our little feet could carry us to the school, Billy Big Head was fast but this meant he was only going to get one of us instead of 3 or 4 of us.
that wasn't working to well so well as eventually got all of us so we joined with a couple more boys on the way to school, this made 5 or 6 of us and now we were a herd of Buffalo that could stand up to the Lion Billy Big head, that worked all of 2 minutes, we were walking to school six strong one day when Billy big Head popped out demanding his money. well after a minute or so the herd broke and started handing him the 2 cent's and the one's that didn't have it ran for their lives.
some thing had to give, most of the time I didn't have the 2 cent's and was getting tired of Billy Big Head pushing me down.
on the way from school we would talk about our next strategy to defeat this big stupid kid. I don't know who thought of it but we had it the perfect plan. we all had sling shots and were pretty good with them, we knew we couldn't use the usual rock ammo because we would get in trouble with the law, some one came up with Beans, dried navy beans, they would hurt like Heck but wouldn't break the skin.
we carried our sling shots for a few days and sure enough Billy Big Head pops out of the bush's demanding his money, we all reached and loaded the beans in a flash, I could only describe it as a flock of birds turning in unison the way we grabbed those sling shots and loaded, we fired almost as one, Billy big Head got hit in the upper body and His Big head, he was hollering like he was stung by hornets throwing his hands and arms up to cover that large head, we reloaded and fired as fast as we could and he was on the run about the third round of firing and we continued until he got out of range of the beans.
needless to say Billy Big Head was never seen again on the way to school. the one thing good about Billy Big Head was he kept us in shape running for our lives.