Saturday, July 08, 2006

The Ballad of Big Pri


(Storytelling Saturday relives some juvenile delinquent days)

Once upon a time...

Big Pri wasn’t the toughest guy around but he was a leader of the older gang (late teens) in my old neighborhood. Known as “Big Pri” because he had two younger brothers, he once smashed his fist through a window because he saw someone dancing with his girl at a church dance. Shortly after that, he was hanging out on a corner in a cast when me and my crew came by to honor him. Just then, some guy came running up with a meat cleaver. He swung at Pri who blocked it with his cast. The cleaver stuck in the plaster and they started fighting. As they wrestled on the ground, one of Pri’s friends pick-pocketed the guy’s switchblade. Big Pri eventually kicked the guy’s ass and we learned the whole thing started because Pri had robbed the guy’s apartment.

Big Pri and his friends taunted and tortured us younger guys to no end. They’d think nothing of pulling off our pants and tossing them up a telephone pole or dangling us by our feet out a fourth floor window. We survived these episodes and bragged afterwards. This earned their respect and Pri’s gang often defended us when we needed it most. Like the time when Little Man, a member of the Young Sinners, got wasted and started threatening two of my friends with a knife, I snuck away and ran to Pri’s apartment. He and a few others were down in no time and soon had Little Man under control.

I don’t know for certain but I think Big Pri eventually ended up in prison for manslaughter. The story I heard was that he was robbing a liquor store and the owner died of a heart attack on the spot.

Who else wants to spin a yarn?

(P.S. Here’s an old Saturday story of mine that’s ended up posted elsewhere.)

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Forza Italia...

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Posted on 07/08 at 06:31 AM
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