Hood Roots

playing Hooky

It was time for my 8th grade luncheon. Me, my best friend Al and our close friend Steven decided not to go to the luncheon that year.
We were big Eddie Murphy fans back then and the new Beverly Hills cop movie had just came out.
Our parents never really took us to the show so going was always a big deal. Missing the luncheon was no big deal because me, Al and Steven definitely didn't hang out in the popular crowd.
Who would miss us? We got dressed  and left our homes then met up at the playground. If we were going to miss our luncheon we had to do it big so we decided to go down town and see the movie. Downtown Chicago was like Emerald City to a bunch of kids from the hood.
It was such a relief to be away from gunshots trash and gangs.
We knew we were safe.  Al was my buddy. He always wore a tight "fro". In fact he wore a fro for years. Infact everyone that lived in his house rocked a fro. Steven live across the park from Al. I met Steven through Al and we became the three amigos and remained close until I went to the state. It's funny that three boys from the hood didn't let the hood take hold of our lives. I went on to wear a badge just like Steven and Al never went to prison or got sucked into a criminal life.
Steven is retired and now speaks the word of God with his beautiful and intelligent wife. I'm retired and have a hobby video production company and Al went on to do great local things in music.
We didn't end up with a ton of kids either.
Anyway, downtown Chicago was the best way to miss a luncheon. When the kids at school bragged about how nice the luncheon was it felt so good to say that we went to see Eddie Murphy downtown and ate downtown.
No body want to talk about the luncheon after that.
For a few minutes we were the popular kids for once.
We saw a movie that most of the kids wouldn't see until it came out on HBO or some other cable network.
Playing hooky got addictive. These little adventures made life in the hood a little more fun.
My hood was full of gangs but I was too scary to join a gang. I could never be jumped into a gang nor did I want to kill anyone.
The con of not being in a gang was you had no protection. Lucky for me I had a couple of gang bangers for friends. These friends have me protection without having to join a gang but sometimes it would mean you're guilty by association to opposing gangs looking to make trouble.
I had a friend name Larry Sanders.
He was a young thug but never judged me because I wasn't. In fact it was safe to say he was one of my best friends growing up.
He was also my highschool playing hooky friend. He was also my partner in crime.
Larry was an exceptional thief and taught me how to do things I never would have done without him.
We would climb the beams the led to the elevated trains and come up through the tracks to avoid paying fares. I was scared but if Larry could do it so could I.
He made me brave but didn't know it.
Larry was a cornrows wearing gangster at a young age. He was in the 5th grade and cherished his thug life.
He was fucking in the damn 5th grade.
He wasn't just fucking he was giving girls piss enemas. He was freaky before I understood what freaky was.
One day we played hooky before school and went to the university.
Im not going to say the name of the school but I owe yall some cash and I plan on making good on it. Let this book become a film.
We walked the university grounds and came across a vending machine room.
Larry told me to look out and he used a spark plugs to break out the vending machine glass. We loaded our book bags full of candy and ran off to school to sell it. I think that was my first and only crime 😂. I had too many regrets to be a good thief. When my movie comes out I will send that school a anonymous donation to make up for my part in trashing that vending room.
What's odd about Larry is he went by the name Curtis and I swear he reminded you of a young 50 cents. The way "Curtis" wore his du-rag and hat back in 85 is the same as 50 wears it now. To this day they call Larry 50 Cent.
I stopped playing hooky when I left Near North highschool. Near North replaced another famous Chicago highschool, Cooley high. There is a weird twist to this story. I went to the school they built to replace Cooley when they tore it down. 5 yrs later I met Miss Jackie Taylor who starred in the Movie Cooley High and worked with her on a couple of plays.
I never told her of the coincidental meeting.