Saturday, July 7, 2012

I was in a gang

This is a page from Ben's yearbook during his senior year of high school. It's one of the pages in the back that parents can purchase...either a full page, half page, whatever...and, most of the time, it's a little dedication to their child to tell them how wonderful they are in every possible way since it's just soooo darn hard to graduate high school. And, if your parents don't purchase a page for you or choose to advertise their business instead, those kids aren't really loved or their parents are just poor. It's definitely one of those two.

So, my parents bought a page for Ben... 


I know a few of my posts have been about nicknames, but I totally forgot all about our 'gang days'. I think it started with Ben and a couple of his friends...they all had fake gang names for each other. And, then our whole family got incorporated into it somehow.

My dad was Big Ned because he was the feared gang leader, and everyone else was Lil' something or other because they were low on the esteemed gang totem pole. My mom was Lil' Jess...at least that's what the yearbook says because they wouldn't publish curse words...her real name was Lil' :expletive: Jess (it's so highly racist inappropriate that I can't even mention it in my blog). My name was Lil' Peep, and Ben's name was Lil' Billy. Pretty threatening gang names.

And, we used to say "Yo yeh yeh!" a lot. Not sure where that came from, but I imagine it's a phrase many gang members use.

Sadly, the novelty and authenticity of being in a gang wears off pretty quickly once you realize you live in the rolling hills and one of the most rural parts of CT. You stroll into school (which, mind you, is regional with 3 towns and 6th-12th grade all present, because then it's almost enough kids for a real high school) feeling pretty damn sweet and gangster-ish, and then you see the tractors in the parking lot and the llamas in the backyard, and it's like oooooh yeahhhhh.

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