When I was in school from the mid 1950s to the mid
1960s, among the most interesting denizens were "hoods".
"Hoods" were guys that our parents told us to keep away from. Of
course, I was fascinated by them. Oh, at this juncture, I need to define what
is "hood" is. "Hoods" were guys that wore
"ducktail" haircuts, black corduroy jackets, had their shirt collars
up, wore "heel taps", and smoked. They also usually quit school after the 8th
grade. They also stood on the corner of Route 61 and Main St. in Berlin Heights,
smoked, and looked tough. In the 1950s, they were also known as punks, thugs,
or juvenile delinquents. It's very interesting that when I was in school I
never knew why they were called "hoods" rather than punks. Before I
writing this opus, I checked the on line dictionary and found that
"hood" is short for hoodlum. Well, now I know. You certainly learn
something every day no matter what your age. Since Berlin Local School was a
small rural school, I think all of our resident "hoods" just wanted
to look like juvenile delinquents rather than actually be delinquents. There
may have been incidents where they were perhaps delinquent, but I never heard
about them. Our resident "hoods" were Ernie, Jack, and Lester. Hmmm,
I'm not sure I would want to be a "hood" with a name like Lester. Oh,
well, it worked for him. Who was I to question that?
One thing about "hoods" was that you didn't
"wise off" to them. Even I didn't "wise off" to them
because I was kind of afraid of them. I found the best way to deal with them
and keep on their good side, was to act respectful, and maintain on aura of
fascination with them. The most feared "hood" in the school was
Ernie. He looked and acted tough. He would walk down the halls with his
"heel taps" echoing off the walls, with his shirt collar up. When he
was outside, he was always spitting. The odd thing about that was that his
spits were dry. He just opened his mouth slightly and blew air though his teeth,
which resulted in a sound somewhat like a low hiss. It only lasted a fraction
of a second. I guess part of being a tough"hood" was that you had to
"spit" at regular intervals, even if they were "dry spits".
I recall one time when I was behind him and Jack in the hall, I always
maintained a respectful distance from all of them. One time Ernie and Jack were
"tapping" down the hall with their collars up. One of our teachers
was coming down the hall the opposite way and when he was almost to them, he
said in a very firm tone, "Put those
collars down boys". They immediately complied. I was somewhat
disappointed because I wanted to see a confrontation between them and a
teacher. Alas, no such luck, they just put their collars down and continued
walking to the 8th grade room. I'm surprised that they were allowed
to wear "heel taps". Maybe the school official's rationale was that
they would cut them a little slack so they wouldn't become more incorrigible
then they already were. By the time I was in High School, I don't recall seeing
any of them around, so I figured that Ernie, Jack, and Lester all quit school
after the 8th grade.
One time Lester was standing on the street corned
looking tough and I conjured up my courage and walked up to him, and started a
conversation. To my tacit surprise, he was very friendly and gregarious. Eventually
I asked him if I could have a drag off his Camel, and he handed it over to me.
I took a puff. In those days, I didn't inhale. Interestingly enough, he never
teased me or tried to belittle me. After a short time, I told him I had to go
and said so long. In later years, I noted that many guys act differently when
they are with their peers. When they are alone, their behavior is totally the
opposite. This is human nature based on insecurity and I believe that Lester
was being "himself" apart from the other "hoods" since
there was no peer pressure on him to act like the rest of them. I never talked
to Ernie, however, because he came across as too tough for me to conger up the courage
to go "one on one" with him. For all I knew, he might have been the
same as Lester was. Alas, I will never know.
Jack was also especially scary to me, although not to
the extent that Ernie was. One significant thing that Jack is noted for was
that he gave me my school nickname of "Crow". The reason for that was
that he had blonde hair and he was jealous of my thick coal black hair. I know
this because he told me this on many occasions that he wished he had hair like
that. In fact, my Grandmother "Ollie" always said my hair was
"as black as a raven's wing". When I got to high school, our shop
teacher changed it to "Crow Bait". I will get into that in a future
story. One cool thing that Jack had was a steel comb. It was shiny and looked
like stainless steel. Ever since then I've tried to find one but have been
unsuccessful thus far. I'm sure I could find one now on the Internet, but at
this juncture, I don't need it since my hair is starting to get "a little
sparse". Woe is me, the maladies of old age. Maybe all hoods went to a
secret store called Hoods R Us and could find selections of steel combs, black
corduroy jackets, shirts with easily turned up collars, rabbit's feet and the
like.
Although it always has been against my nature to
desire to be a "hood", I nevertheless coveted their black corduroy
jackets. This was not because I desired to look like a "hood", but I
just thought the jackets were cool. I did acquire one. In those days, all black
corduroy jackets that "hoods" wore were embroidered with their name
over the left front pocket. The real cool "hoods" topped off the jacket
with a rabbit's foot hanging on the front pocket zipper. As soon as I got the
jacket, I went to Fulstow's in Norwalk to have my name embroidered over the
pocket. Fortunately, the real "hoods" never gave me any trouble about
the unauthorized wearing of their "colors". Maybe if I had hung a
rabbit's foot on the zipper, they may have said something. I never acted
"hoodish" or put up the collar on any of my shirts. Being
"hoodish" is just not "me". In direct antithesis of
Steppenwolf's song, I was "born to be mild". However, I did have some
really cool "heel taps". In fact, a lot of us "non hoods"
had heel taps since it made us sound really cool while we sauntered down the
hall. One of the more amusing results of my wearing heel taps was that when I
was walking down the hall, people never knew for sure if it was any of our
resident hoods Ernie, Jack, or Lester, which struck fear into others, including
me. When I would go tapping down the hall and people saw it was me, they would
usually say, "Oh, it's just you".
Everyone knew that I was innocuous
and certainly not a "hood".
By now, I imagine that Ernie, Jack, and Lester are all
mature respectable adults. However, if I ever hear heel taps echoing through
halls, I will be very cautious and be ever vigilant of seeing someone with
their collars up, sporting a ducktail haircut, and wearing a faded black corduroy
jacket with a rabbit's foot hanging on the front pocket. It's just possible
that some things never change.
