as i mentioned in my last story,the floors of the elementary school i went to were old hardwoods,and the sound of people walking on them were amplified due to this.
while in the fifth grade,there was a kid in the sixth grade named john wayne welch.john had some kind of disability in his legs,and i can't remember for sure but believe it may have been due to polio.he wore metal leg braces and special shoes,and the leg braces fit under the heels like a stirrup to a boot.
the school was L-shaped with two wings.the first through third on one, and fourth through sixth on the other.john could walk,but he walked with a forward lean and because of this he would fall over forward quite often.he would get to walking and his speed would increase,and soon gravity would take over.because john fell over so much it in effect caused him to do pushups all the time and you can believe it or not but he was quite stout in his arms and upper body from all this repetition.
because of the floors you could here john coming and during class if john had to leave his classroom for some reason,enevitably he would fall in the hall,BOOM and every one in class along that wing would laugh or giggle because they knew it was john.he would grunt and make a little racket and go on his way,and he didn't like people helping him up.did i mention that john could be a little belligerant.
john had a sister in my grade and i remember her also because in fifth grade she had profuse hair under the arm,and she never shaved it,which kind of linds creedence to girls maturing faster than boys.after elementary school i saw johns sister maybe a couple of times,once at a 7-eleven store,when i was about 17,she was there with her boyfriend using a pay phone in a booth.as she exited the booth i was walking up,we made eye contact,she asked me what i was looking at and threatened to whip my ass:lol.i don't think she ever did shave underneath her arms,i wasn't worried about her boyfriend,but i would have thought twice about jumping on her
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well after john went on to junior high i don't remember having seen him for awhile but about a year or so latter he began showing up at the pool room.he didn't shoot pool to much as i recall but did play alot of pinball,and didn't like it if someone was on his favorite machine when he got there,and you could see his impatience if someone was on it and wasn't in a hurry to get off.
pool was a penny a minute at this time and i can't remember what it cost to play pinball.i got 2 bucks a week allowance,so it was two hours of pool,a coke,and a pack of lance nip chee crackers and i'm down to 40 cents,and if i needed cigarettes make that 7 cents,so it's off to the skating rink to watch people skate or stand outside and listen to the bands they had occasionally on weekends.
back to john,john was still stout in his upper body and i wasn't but still about 5 foot 3 inches,so one night john runs out of change and wants to break a dollar but he doesn't want to leave the machine,so he starts to amble over to the payout desk to get change,and i start to take over the machine because i wanted to play next,he gives me a hard shove and tells me to stay off the machine,well i was raised better than to hurt a crippled person no matter his personality so after he complained to the man running the place i said go head i'll wait,i wouldn't have wanted john to get those grippers on me anyway:lol.
john would participate in the weekends stupity ritual that i would watch each weekend at the pool room on top of the glass of a pinball machine,when there was usually someone playing chicken with a cigarette,if you didn't have the priviledge to see this,two people would hotbox a cigarette,lay it between their forearms and leave it there until someone chickened out.i knew several people that had those jellied sores and scars down their arms that were brown from this favored activity.once i got to high school i don't remember having seen john much,i guess he was just one of those people that pass us by.
winston chamberlain was a kid i met in junior high,he also hung out at the pool hall,we had two pool rooms,mckinney recreation,and dougs pool room.dougs had a little rougher crowd and they played moon in the back for money,moon is a domino game played in texas and probably other southern states,my dad played but not at dougs,he didn't want to get caught gambling,and you could see the tables from the street and a cop could just walk in,so he played at a private room with a buzzer on the door.
winston was tall for a kid in junior high about 6 foot 1 inch and he seemed friendly enough of a person.about this time someone showed winston what you could do with india ink and a needle,and it was all over but the shoutin',within a short period of time winston had both arms tatoo'd up with everything from devil's heads to lizards to peoples names and crosses,and man they looked amateur for sure.well my last year of school in mckinney was my freshman year,there was a little wood foot bridge across from the high school in one of the neighborhoods that surrounded it,we would gather there to smoke before school and some school administrator would watch us to see if they could catch us coming on campus with one.on this morning i didn't have any cigarettes and winston was there so i asked if i could bum one,he looked at me and said F-you and hit me on top of the head with his cigarette and knocked me down.
i could smell the singed hair and as i was getting up a kid i had known since elementary school laid a body block on him and put him down and told him to leave me alone.i guess winston had had a bad night.
i didn't see winston after i moved following the school year again, and boy was i glad i started growing between my freshman and sophmore years,don't know what kind of family life winston had,often wondered if he regretted messing up his arms with the tatoo's,guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.
while in the fifth grade,there was a kid in the sixth grade named john wayne welch.john had some kind of disability in his legs,and i can't remember for sure but believe it may have been due to polio.he wore metal leg braces and special shoes,and the leg braces fit under the heels like a stirrup to a boot.
the school was L-shaped with two wings.the first through third on one, and fourth through sixth on the other.john could walk,but he walked with a forward lean and because of this he would fall over forward quite often.he would get to walking and his speed would increase,and soon gravity would take over.because john fell over so much it in effect caused him to do pushups all the time and you can believe it or not but he was quite stout in his arms and upper body from all this repetition.
because of the floors you could here john coming and during class if john had to leave his classroom for some reason,enevitably he would fall in the hall,BOOM and every one in class along that wing would laugh or giggle because they knew it was john.he would grunt and make a little racket and go on his way,and he didn't like people helping him up.did i mention that john could be a little belligerant.
john had a sister in my grade and i remember her also because in fifth grade she had profuse hair under the arm,and she never shaved it,which kind of linds creedence to girls maturing faster than boys.after elementary school i saw johns sister maybe a couple of times,once at a 7-eleven store,when i was about 17,she was there with her boyfriend using a pay phone in a booth.as she exited the booth i was walking up,we made eye contact,she asked me what i was looking at and threatened to whip my ass:lol.i don't think she ever did shave underneath her arms,i wasn't worried about her boyfriend,but i would have thought twice about jumping on her
.well after john went on to junior high i don't remember having seen him for awhile but about a year or so latter he began showing up at the pool room.he didn't shoot pool to much as i recall but did play alot of pinball,and didn't like it if someone was on his favorite machine when he got there,and you could see his impatience if someone was on it and wasn't in a hurry to get off.
pool was a penny a minute at this time and i can't remember what it cost to play pinball.i got 2 bucks a week allowance,so it was two hours of pool,a coke,and a pack of lance nip chee crackers and i'm down to 40 cents,and if i needed cigarettes make that 7 cents,so it's off to the skating rink to watch people skate or stand outside and listen to the bands they had occasionally on weekends.
back to john,john was still stout in his upper body and i wasn't but still about 5 foot 3 inches,so one night john runs out of change and wants to break a dollar but he doesn't want to leave the machine,so he starts to amble over to the payout desk to get change,and i start to take over the machine because i wanted to play next,he gives me a hard shove and tells me to stay off the machine,well i was raised better than to hurt a crippled person no matter his personality so after he complained to the man running the place i said go head i'll wait,i wouldn't have wanted john to get those grippers on me anyway:lol.
john would participate in the weekends stupity ritual that i would watch each weekend at the pool room on top of the glass of a pinball machine,when there was usually someone playing chicken with a cigarette,if you didn't have the priviledge to see this,two people would hotbox a cigarette,lay it between their forearms and leave it there until someone chickened out.i knew several people that had those jellied sores and scars down their arms that were brown from this favored activity.once i got to high school i don't remember having seen john much,i guess he was just one of those people that pass us by.
winston chamberlain was a kid i met in junior high,he also hung out at the pool hall,we had two pool rooms,mckinney recreation,and dougs pool room.dougs had a little rougher crowd and they played moon in the back for money,moon is a domino game played in texas and probably other southern states,my dad played but not at dougs,he didn't want to get caught gambling,and you could see the tables from the street and a cop could just walk in,so he played at a private room with a buzzer on the door.
winston was tall for a kid in junior high about 6 foot 1 inch and he seemed friendly enough of a person.about this time someone showed winston what you could do with india ink and a needle,and it was all over but the shoutin',within a short period of time winston had both arms tatoo'd up with everything from devil's heads to lizards to peoples names and crosses,and man they looked amateur for sure.well my last year of school in mckinney was my freshman year,there was a little wood foot bridge across from the high school in one of the neighborhoods that surrounded it,we would gather there to smoke before school and some school administrator would watch us to see if they could catch us coming on campus with one.on this morning i didn't have any cigarettes and winston was there so i asked if i could bum one,he looked at me and said F-you and hit me on top of the head with his cigarette and knocked me down.
i could smell the singed hair and as i was getting up a kid i had known since elementary school laid a body block on him and put him down and told him to leave me alone.i guess winston had had a bad night.
i didn't see winston after i moved following the school year again, and boy was i glad i started growing between my freshman and sophmore years,don't know what kind of family life winston had,often wondered if he regretted messing up his arms with the tatoo's,guess he was just one of those people who pass us by.