TALES FROM H-TOWN: THE LONG WALK

Back when I was growing up in Harvey, I was into Boy Scouts. Boy Scout Troop 376 met at First United Methodist Church on Lexington; and, it's where I met Tracy Dyson, who ended up becoming my best friend. We were about 11 or 12 at the time, so this was around 1978 or 79. We'd decided to go for a merit badge, I believe it was for hiking. Everything was set for that Saturday: A day I'll never forget.

Tracy and I got picked up from Harvey by our Scoutmaster, Mr.. Gooch. We were dressed in our scout finest. Green uniforms, merit badges and ranks, and "Scout Pride." Mr.. Gooch took us to his house in Oak Forest. He dropped us off there, and gave us directions to find him a mile or two away at a local Forest Preserve. He drove off, and Tracy and I started our walk.

I was nervous. We were both from Harvey and had never been to this area before. I had no idea where to go! Tracy was better with navigation, so I relied on him and hoped that he would get it right. We walked through a residential area, made a few turns, and ended up on a street that was bordered on both sides by forest. Down the street we went.

We hadn't been on the wooded road long when a White lady with a child pulled up in her car next to us. She pointed at us and instructed her little one with "Those are niggers!" Then she drove off. I was shocked, and Tracy looked sick. We hadn't really thought about having any racial issues to get a merit badge...but here the issue was. We were two Black kids walking alone through what was starting to seem like hostile territory!

We walked a bit more and a White man drove up, and spat at us! We cursed him out as he drove off! By now we were cautious of every car that passed. Tracy and I were just coming to a big church property, when another White man drove by and threw a bottle at us! The bottle broke and some of the glass got in Tracy's shoe! We'd had enough! First, Tracy got the glass out of his shoe. Then we looked for bricks, sticks, and anything else we could carry. I tied a bandana around my head like an Apache warrior, and we were ready. Ironically we were preparing for battle on church grounds. The next driver that called us "Niggers" had so much shit flying his way, it looked like a biblical stoning! Every car that passed now contained a potential enemy! We were tense, angry, and defensive for the rest of our long walk.

When we made it to Mr.. Gooch, he was smiling. But he could see from our faces that something was wrong. We told him what happened and he was speechless. Mr.. Gooch was a very nice man, and he was White. He said that he was sorry for what we'd gone through. The whole time Tracy and I had been walking, Mr.. Gooch had been preparing a meal over an open fire with a Dutch Oven. He unveiled pot roast with veggies, and for dessert there was pineapple upside-down cake! It was a feast fit for Robin Hood and his merry men of the forest!

Even though the meal was awesome, Tracy and I were pretty quiet throughout. When we were driving back home we stayed quiet. I was just happy to be going back to Harvey. The meal had been delicious, but I still had a bad taste in my mouth from the long walk.

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GANGS OF HARVEY: GOLF ANYONE?

I was over at my friend Tim Collins'house one night, hanging out in the driveway. Tim, Cary Johnson, Andrew Richmond, me and some others were sitting around telling stories and engaging in our most common activity: Cadding (cracking jokes on eachother). We decided to walk a couple of blocks away to the all night gas station on 154th & Ashland for some snacks.

The group of us were joking when we made it there. All of a sudden a chubby light-skinned boy ran up to the station window, beating on it and screaming for help! His face was swollen and discolored. As the gas station attendant was coming outside, a group of boys and girls ran up screaming with golf clubs! Surrounded by a bunch of thugs with clubs, my friends and I thought we might have to fight!

The attendant was trying to keep the crowd away from the beaten boy, when one of them came towards me. I was ready to swing on him when I saw that he wasn't looking at me. He snuck around behind me and my friends, got in back of the attendant, and came at the chubby boy from the side...CRACK! He popped the chubby boy in the eye with a full punch and knocked him into the station's glass window!

The chubby boy was dazed, and in serious trouble, when another light-skinned boy came running up. "Get away from my brother" he yelled! He ran towards one of the girls, grabbed her club, and hit her in the teeth with it! She screamed and ran off! He then came over the top with a swing --like he was chopping wood-- and cracked one of the other boys in the top of the head! Blood squirted up about two feet in the air! The thug grabbed his head, yelled and started hopping away like a damned bunny rabbit! The rest of them ran away. The light-skinned brother with the club said he was a Vice Lord, and that the people chasing his little brother were Gangster Disciples.

The gas station attendant offered to call an ambulance and the police, but the two brothers refused and left. My friends and I went ahead with getting our snacks, and left too. Going back home we talked about our night, which wasn't too unusual. It was just another night in the 1980's gangland battlefield that Harvey had become...

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TALES FROM H-TOWN: THE FACE OF RACISM

Harvey is a mostly African-American community today, with a growing Latino population. Back in the 1970's it was pretty much Black and White. Most seemed to get along well, but there were still incidents.

Growing up I was a Boy scout in Troop 376 in the 1970's. We met at First United Methodist Church on 154th/155th & Lexington. Our Troop was racially mixed, and that was clearly pointed out by our Patrol Leader, Rick Furlong. He was a White boy who liked to throw around the word "Nigger" at the Black scouts, when he was mad. He felt like he could get away with it because his father was close to the Scoutmaster and usually at meetings.

One Summer we were at Summer Boy scout Camp...Camp Kiswaukee. A couple of weeks of living in nature. Cold showers in the morning, food cooked over a fire, keeping snakes out of your sleeping bags, using Out Houses (icks!), learning to shoot bows and rifles, and more. It was fun! Especially for African-American urban kids who weren't used to the outdoors. Other Black scouts from the neighborhood included Tracy Dyson, Parrish Walker, Hiram Walker and Excel Jones. We had a number of cool White scouts like Tim & Terry Houts (Houts or Fouts, can't remember which), Tim Martozzi, Scott Furlong and Jim Whippie in our troop too, but there still was Patrol Leader Rick!

One day I was walking with Excel near a pit that had ropes hanging above for scouts to swing over. It was an obstacle course type of thing. We were on our way to another good dinner (all meals there were the bomb diggity), when Rick walked up and said something to Excel. Excel said something back, and Rick called him a nigger. Excel had heard that word one too many times, so he karate flying kicked Rick into the pit! Rick kept calling him a nigger while he tried to crawl back up to ground level. Excel grabbed a rope, swung in the air, and kicked him back into the ditch! Rick was pissed, while Excel and I were cracking up! "You stupid niggers," Rick yelled as he climbed out of the pit again. He rushed at Excel, but Excel danced back and popped Rick in the face with a punch! The next time Rick rushed, same result --Pop! Rick was crying by now and Excel was fighting and laughing hysterically. Rick saw that he couldn't win so he ran off to tell someone; but Excel didn't get into any trouble. After that, Rick stopped using that word around us.

On my block there were a few White families. One of those was run by Mr. Cain, who let it be known that he hated Black people! If my friends or I walked past his house he would scream "Get away from my house you little coons!" We would laugh at his fat ass. If we spoke to his son Kenny, Mr. Cain would tell him not to speak back. Sometimes he would even call the police on us for walking past his house or playing football in the street. Eventually things started to happen. Maybe it was karma. Somebody shot his dog! A boy on the block named Bernie got caught tarring his car. And then, one night, someone threw eggs through his windows and put smoke bombs in his living room mailbox. He moved away soon after.

It was Senior year in high school, 1983-84. Parrish Walker, his brother Hiram, and I walked to other side of town to checkout our friend Diondrae White. We were walking past a bar on Halsted, when a White man ran.out and yelled "Get away from here! We don't want your kind around here!" I don't remember who it was, but one of us shouted back "Fuck you!" He ran back inside, and less than five minutes later we heard sirens. When we saw the police, Parrish and I ran. Diondrae and Hiram kept walking. The police pulled up next to them and put Diondrae and Hiram in the back seat. Parrish and I walked by and saw them sitting there. Eventually they were let go, but to be put in a police car for "Walking While Black," in a now majority Black city, was fucked up!

After high school I got invited to a party by a girl that I went to Thornton Township High School with, Diane Ingram. I'd had a huge crush on Diane for all four years of school, and I was thrilled that she'd invited me to a party at her house. That night I hooked up with my buddy, Jaime Heimlich, and we headed over to the party. I was the only African-American there, but I was having a bal! I remember lots of drinks in the backyard, seeing Diane smiling a lot, seeing Jaime laughing, and passing out on the back porch! I eventually sobered up, and Jaime and I started to head home. When we got to the front of Diane's house I saw two guys sitting on the steps. "Take it easy," I said, and was going about my way, when one of them yelled back "Go back to Africa!" I turned around and started walking towards him. "Get up so I can beat yo ass," I screamed. His friend apologized for him, said that he'd had too much to drink, and asked me to forget it. It was yet another face of racism. He tried to ruin my night, but I didn't let him!

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I just got a robocall from a preacher...WTF!!! I know that politicians make robocalls to get votes, but now pastors are calling for converts??? Must need a new Cadillac. SMDH!!!

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TALES FROM H-TOWN: THE AGE OF UNDERWEAR

In the 80's, my friend Parrish Walker was always zooming around on his motorcycle. One bright sunny day he drove up outside my house on Vine in Harvey, Illinois. I was standing there with a bunch of friends. Somehow the discussion turned into a dare for somebody to strip and ride on the back of Parrish's bike. I had a knack for accepting dares, so I did. I stripped down to my underwear. Then, after mustering up the courage (or foolishness depending on your view), I took off my drawers. I put my hands on Parrish's shoulders and put my feet on the bike seat. We drove off down an alley, turned onto 155th and Myrtle, and then down busy 155th St. Passing drivers had looks of shock as we sped by in our modern day version of the Lady Godiva story He dropped my off at home I got dressed, and the dare was done..

One night I was in a car with David Dright (the driver), Aubrey Fourte and Tracy Dyson. We had been having a good time getting zooted. We ended up in West Harvey by Dixie Highway, when Tracy wanted to make a stop. He was seeing a girl in the neighborhood. Dave drove over to her house and parked across the street. We stayed in the car while Tracy went in. Maybe five minutes later Tracy came storming out! He came back to the car and said "Let's Go!" Before we could ask what happened, out came his girl into the street -- in her panties! She was screaming his name while she ran and dove through the car window, to stop us from leaving. She was laid out across Dave's lap, while Aubrey was in the passenger's seat. Aubrey and Dave looked at each other like Morris Day and Jerome from "The Time," simultaneously both said "Yesssss," and they started squeezing her ass like a pair of G.I. Joes with Kung-Fu Grips! Eventually Tracy got "Ms. Panties" back into her house and we left.

One Saturday night I was with my girlfriend at my house. We had just laid down to sleep when I heard a car door slam outside, and a car speed off. I got up and looked out the window. What did I see but a man with no shirt leaning up against my girlfriend's car. I ran outside to move him, but when I got close I saw that he had nothing on but his underwear. He looked like he was drugged or something -- fast asleep standing up in the street while leaning against a car in his drawers! I was like WTF!!! I called the police to come get that mofo!. I guess the gangs of Harvey robbed him, and left him with nothing but his underoos.

I was getting ready to leave out for my college classes and work one day when I heard a knock at my door. It was my friend Dino from around the corner. He was an older guy who was cool with me and my friends from way back. He said that he was being evicted. I walked around to his house with him and saw his furniture and things being laid on the lawn by sheriffs. I had to get going so I said I'd check him out later. I never saw Dino again. Last I heard, he was seen walking in downtown Harvey in his underwear!

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