Josh can remember growing as a child; his dad was only in his life for a short time. He had his own problems to deal with. My mother’s name is Pamela. She has no education. All she did was to keep a roof over our head and food in our bellies. Josh remembers at one point in time she had three jobs to support us. At the time, Josh had no understanding of what it took to raise four kids without having support from their father. Josh has two brothers and one sister. His sister’s name is Ebony. Then there’s Joe the oldest boy and Jason is the youngest. Josh was in the middle.
We would move at least once a year until finally we moved out of the hood. Josh never had any white friend until he moved to area that had more white then black. These weren’t your blue or white collar kind fork but more of the hillbilly type. His mom’s main goal was to get her and her kids out of the hood, and she did. Josh attended Hyde Park Elementary school. My previous school had been mainly black kids; however, this school had mainly white kids. In elementary school I was completely lost in must subjects, but Josh seemed to do well in math. The school was in walking distance. The first time Josh failed was in the second grade. After he failed, some genius, maybe my teacher, decided to put him in Exceptional Student Education Classes (ESE). Although it is mostly recognized in relation to students with disabilities (physical, mental, emotional, etc.,), it is truly meant for all students outside the "average" student (including gifted students). ESE is really a very large umbrella...ranging from students with ADHD to those with visual/hearing impairments, to students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) to gifted. Under the category of ESE are all these sub topics. Of course, he did not know any of this at that time period of my life. Josh teacher’s name was Mrs. Franklin. She was a short old lady who could not keep her class in order. Most of the kids had behavioral problems and could not stay in their seats. The first thing I thought was why I am in here and was there something wrong with me.
Moreover, he soon found that he could do or say whatever he wanted. Josh was a good student until he was given this new experience. He was only eight year old, and he could now use profanity, talk disrespectfully, and fight other students and not get in any trouble. Josh was easily influenced. He enjoyed my new found authority. He was the one on control, at least that’s what he thought. Why would professionals permit students to behave in this fashion?
There were two students whom josh got to know well, Dean and Lorenzo. Dean was a skinny little white boy who lived in a trailer, and Lorenzo was a fat black kid who lived in Oat Tree Apartments. Dean and Lorenzo were friends before Josh came into the picture. As he got to know them, he found out that these two did not play by the rules. Even though Josh had already started to rebel against authority, they showed him how easy it was to be a troublemaker.
Dean and Lorenzo both live with their grandmothers. Dean had no respect for his grandmother. The way he would talk to her was unbelievable. He would always tell her he hated her, but dean was only nine years old. In fact, it seemed that she allowed him to talk to her that way. Dean’s father also lived with them, but he was working most of the time. He didn’t put up Dean’s foolishness. However, Dean did not fear him either.
On the other hand, Lorenzo was much more respectful toward his grandmother because she would not allow him or any of her other grandkids to be rude. She knew how to use a belt. Dean, Lorenzo, Jason, and Josh became best of friends. Of course Jason Josh’s brother, but they did hang out with each other until the four of them were joined. Because Dean was not the average kid that we came to know, Jason brother and Josh were introduced to new activities. For example, dean showed them how to catch snakes. One of the ways to catch a snake was to lay sheets of thin plywood out in the grass on hot days. They would come back hours later to check to see if any snakes decided to cool off. Dean would pick up the wood quickly. If there was a snake underneath the boards, Dean would either use his foot or a stick to put on the snake’s neck to make sure the snake could not bite him. Then he would pick the snake up by the neck. After seeing this, Josh was hooked. Most of the snakes were not venomous but if bitten by some you could become sick. On the other hand, Jason did not seem to be as thrilled as Josh. A year passed and for the most part they all had changed. Lorenzo and Jason remained mostly the same, but Dean and Josh started taking on new identities. Josh was now killing and skinning rabbits with Dean’s dad, and Dean was now listening to rap music. It was funny to listen to Dean as he attempted to rap the lyric to a song. The words never came out right no matter how well he knew the song.
They were still kids doing kid stuff. They would pretend that they were on adventures all the time. One time Dean and Josh came up with a brilliant idea. Josh told his mom that he was going to stay the night at Dean’s house, and Dean told his grandmother that he was staying the night with Josh at my house. The plan was to just have fun. They ended up staying the night in an old abandon shad. They should planned better. Dean and Josh told Jason and Lorenzo about their sneaky adventure, they wanted to do it as well. However, this time they were better prepared. They took fishing poles, salt and pepper, and a rack they took from an old rusty grill. Staying in a shad was out of the question. The woods had their names written all over it. First, they all told their parents that same story. Of course they felt for it. Then they dash off to the woods. They quickly started a fire before going night fishing. They caught several fish. Josh cleaned all the fish while the other just sat doing nothing. Once their bellies were filled, it was time for them to stir up some trouble.
Dean’s mother own a house in the neighborhood, so they left the wood and went back to find some action. Most of the time, Dean’s mother was never home, and it was their lucky night. It was now about one o’clock in the morning a cool and peaceful night. In the yard were a shad and an orange tree. The oranges tasted bitter. There was only one thing to do with those oranges. Dean threw the first orange at a trailer directly across from his mother. Orange after orange we pitched at this trailer until the pouch light came on. They swiftly felt to the ground. There was a lot objects to hide behind, so they had plenty of cover. The man of the house came off and yelled a few words, “I have a gun.” He looked but saw no one and went back in his home. When his door shut, we burst out with laughter. Once again we lobed more orange at this man’s house. The few open; we hit the ground. However, this the laughter started early. The man heard the chuckling and screamed, “You kids come out from there.” All four of them at the same time got up and ran but while were running, they were also laughing.
For the rest of the night, they walked around the neighborhood vandalizing people property. When day light broke each went back to the place they called home. To their surprise they found out that things did not go as well as the last time; they were busted. Of course Dean or Lorenzo did not get in to ant trouble. One of the benefits of living with grandparents. Josh and Jason’s mother was very upset, but she took most of her anger out on Josh mostly yelling things. “Are you on drugs”, she screamed. Checking his arms for mark. Josh thought is this women crazy? We are just kids doing irresponsible things. Where did the idea of drugs come from? Josh and Jason were grounded for a few days.
Josh and his brothers became involved with sports, such as baseball, football, and basketball. The first season for baseball Jason and Josh played on the same team. The team was called the Lakeshore Yankees. They both had no experience with this game, but they found it to be very fun. Josh don’t remember the first team that his older Joe played for because he was in a different division than Jason and Josh. Dean also became interested in sports, particularly baseball. After Dean saw how much fun we were having, he convinced his grandmother in to letting him play. Dean and Josh ended up playing on the same team that next year while Jason played the lakeshore Redskins. At practice and some game Dean would be very unruly. He did not like to be told what to do. He would curse at the coaches, at the parents, and the game’s officials. Although Dean’s behavior was uncontrollable, he was not his fault. His grandmother was to blame. She let him do whatever he wanted to do. Besides his untrainable behavior, Dean was a great ball player.
School was getting better for Josh. He did not know who were pulling the strings, but he was now in the fifth grade and move into the normal classes with the normal. However, for reading and English he still had to go to a special class. Josh’s fifth grade teacher name was Mrs. Salmon. She had long blonde hair that reached well beyond her butt. Her skin was very tan because she live on the beach.
“Why do I have to still go to these other classes”, ask Josh.
“I do not Josh” Mrs. Salmon replied.
Josh sat next to a girl named Kelly. Kelly had dark black hair; she was Indian. She did dress like the rest of the young girl at the school. She wore tiny shorts and tight jeans. Josh thought he was in love for the first time. After a few days passes, Josh and Kelly begun to talk.
“Do you have a boyfriend” Josh inquired.
“Yes, his name is Austin, and he is sitting in the front row”, she told him.
Josh know Austin. Austin also play sports for the same park. Austin dressed well, made good grades, and was a safety portal.
“How long have you guys been going out”, josh asked? “For about a month or so. Why? Do you want to be my boyfriend”, she questioned?
“Yes”, Josh spit out.
“Well when we break up you can be my new boyfriends”, she told him.
Later that afternoon at gum time, Austin walked up to Josh.
“Why were you talking to my girl”, Austin demanded.
“We were just talking about stuff no big deal dude”, Josh stated.
“Just don’t be talkin to my girl fool or we will have problems”, he yelled.
“Fuck Man! You I will beat you up and take you girl”, Josh told him.
Austin turned and walked away. As time go on, josh started to get to know more and more of the new faces in Mrs. Salmon class. There was Kenny, Britney, Kelly S., Tommy, and Jim. All of those students became Josh’s friends including Austin. Josh was a really smart kid. Some afternoons Mrs. Salmon would have a Math B. s. The Math B was similarly to the a Spelling B. The teacher would have all the students line up in front of the classroom and the call out multiplication problems, and the students would have call out the answer. No student could bet Josh at this game; however, sometimes Josh would lose on purpose. The reason way Josh was so good with multiplication is because Mrs. Salmon had provided a cassette tape with songs that taught the listener have to do multiplication. Josh would finish his work as quickly as he could so that he listen to the tape. He loved those songs. Some moments he could get so into a songs a started to sing out loud in the class, and must up the time when this would happen the other students would be quietly working on their classwork. He really loved those songs. The day finally came when Kelly and Austin broke up. She was now my girl but not for lone. After all the time and some of his mother money Kelly dumped Josh and got back with Austin. She returned all the gifts he got her. The watch with her name on it, the 14k gold earrings, and the 25 cents necklace he bought her for Walmart. Turned out she did not really like Josh she was using him to make Austin jealous. Josh was heartbroken. Even in the fifth grade, kids could be cruel. It didn’t matter. Josh soon had another girlfriend, Britney. Britney was also a very pretty girl. She was short, brown skinned, and had short hair with an incredible smile. Josh was once in love again. But in elementary school, love don’t last that long. It was now summer time and school was out. The four had nothing to do but to stir up trouble in the neighborhood. Dean nor Lorenzo was good influence for Josh or Jason, but Jason did not participate in most of the activities, he was mostly always there when things happened. “So what do you guys want to do today”, Josh asked? “Let’s go fishing”, Dean answered. “Where, London Town or Ellis Trace” Lorenzo requested. “We should go to London Town”, Dean stated. “London Town is too far too walk. I know we have walked there before, but today I don’t feel like walking. We should just go to Ellis Trace”, Josh explained. “No man. We can fish at London Town and when we are done we can sneak into the pool there” Dean demanded. The boys finally decided to go to London, but first the need to all find a bike to ride to get there. They walk around in their neighborhood looking for bike to steal. They only find two bike that day and had to carry each other on the bike. Josh rowed Dean on the handlebars, and Lorenzo rowed Jason. On the way they spotted a kid for school. “Hey Jim what are you doing around here”, Lorenzo asked. “Nothing”, Jim replied. “I like that hat, Lorenzo said with a smile. Can I ware it?” “No Lorenzo”, Jim Said. “Little bitch give me that hat”, Lorenzo yelled. He snatched the hat off the kid and put it on. “How do I look”, he asked his friends. They just laughed. They sprang back on the bicycles they had stolen and headed for their destination.