9:00 PM - The Bus Stop

“Damnit Buddy! Leave him alone! I yelled at the bully badgering and harassing little Eddie Clayton at the school bus stop early one morning. “Fuck you Tripper! If you keep trying to take up for him, I’ll start messing with you!” That’s when he once again slapped poor little defenseless Eddie up side the cranium. “Fuck this!” I mumbled to myself jumping on Buddy Freeman’s back and the fight was on! Being bigger than me, Buddy slung me around like a rag-doll. Once thrown from his back to the ground, my friend Kevin lit into him throwing a weak right hook to the jaw. Seeing that my best friend was in trouble, I got up, brushed off my corduroys and climbed on Buddy’s back again. Between me and Kevin, we did pretty good there for a while. But in the end, we got our asses kicked as usual. After all, we were only 7th graders and Big Buddy Freeman was a junior.

Hanging out at the bus stop in the morning could sometimes turn out to be pretty dangerous. More than once I came home with a bloody nose or a black eye after fighting with the bigger boys. Growing up in West Tulsa as a kid was quite an ordeal. Lots of rednecks - hoods, jocks and goatropers all riding the big yellow bus to school, the meanest of which always sat at the back of the bus. Buddy Freeman wasn’t the only asshole riding the bus. There were others. Like his brother Donald, Ricky Hicks the mean ass kid from 42nd street one road over from mine, and Clifford Ingram who wasn’t anyone to fuck with himself. It was the mid 60’s. A time before drugs in my part of Oklahoma. Many of the kids similar to those portrayed in S.E. Hinton’s book “The Outsiders”. Kids with greased back hair, straight leg jeans, ratty t-shirts and switchblade knives in their back pockets.

Most of we Oakridge boys stuck together. Especially those of us who had been in school together since first grade. Yet no one liked Eddie. Probably because he was poorer than most and some kids say he smelled bad. Normally, Kevin would not have helped Eddie in a fight. And the way he looked at it that day … he wasn’t. He was simply helping me. Eddie was the neighborhood whipping boy. All the bullies picked on him knowing he didn’t know how or wouldn’t fight back. In class, boys and girls alike taunted and teased Eddie. After school, they beat him up on the way home. But the worst of the worst? It usually happened at the bus stop early in the morning. More times than not, I saw Eddie hobble back to his house beat to fuck, unable to go to school at all because his clothes were bloody and torn. I felt bad for him. Mainly because I wasn’t always around to help him out.

Standing on 43rd waiting to catch the number 2, I saw Eddie running toward me from a nearby area we kids all called “the woods”. Smoking an L & M cigarette, I felt light headed as I hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning. I didn’t feel like fighting although when I saw Ricky Hicks chasing Ed with a baseball bat, I knew I had to intervene. Looking as menacing as I possibly could I screamed, “Leave him alone Rick!” to the bully as Eddie ran behind my back seeking refuge. “That little punk tore up my fort in the woods!” said Ricky. “You’d better get back Trip because I’m fixin’ to kick the holy hell out of him this time!” Suddenly, Eddie took off like a rocket. Outrunning Ricky, he made it to safety but once again missed the bus to school. When I got home that afternoon, I made it a point to find Eddie and ask him if what Ricky said was true. Had he really trashed Ricky Hicks’ makeshift fort in the trees?

“Yeah, I did Tripper! But he had it coming! You know he did! You know how he messes with me all the time!” said Ed. “Well Eddie, don’t do it any more. You’re already at a disadvantage as it is and I won’t always be around to protect you. So chill out! Got it?” I ordered. With his head down, Eddie Clayton acknowledged and sadly walked away. I guess he thought I was being mean to him. In reality, that wasn’t the way it was at all. I was just telling him how the cow chewed the cabbage. I wasn’t always going to be around to tell the bullies to leave him alone. And one day he might get hurt really, really bad. You see, I liked little Eddie. Everyone knew, I was always the one to take up for the underdog. Then something really, really bad happened one day at the bus stop. It was Friday and the last day of school before summer vacation.

Apparently, Eddie arrived at the bus stop and all the other boys were over at the baseball diamond kicking a ball. That’s when Eddie snuck up and grabbed Johnny Horton’s lunch bag, took out his thermos, unscrewed the lid and peed inside. No one knew what happened. Or so Eddie thought. In reality little Cheri Jenkins saw what he did and because Horton was her neighbor over in Cherokee Hills she whispered to Horton on the bus what Eddie had done. When we all got to junior high that day, it was still early so all the kids walked down to Miller’s store. I saw Horton walk up to a kid we all called Booger Red and say something no one could hear. Moments later Booger Red approached Eddie and said, “Why are you giving me a go to hell look? Don’t you know I’ll kick your fucking ass?” “What are you talking about?” said Eddie, flabbergasted at Red’s allegations. “I never even looked your way!” I could see what was about to happen. As bad as I hated to, I knew I had to once again intervene.

Soon as Horton and Ricky Hicks saw me heading toward Booger Red, they both waylaid me from behind. Half unconscious and down on one knee, there was nothing I could do for Eddie this time. Before I knew it, Red and a couple of other Sapulpa hoods had Eddie down on the ground kicking him in the head. Eddie wound up getting sent to the hospital that time. He had a concussion and part of the bone structure around his left eye socket was crushed. After that, Eddie dropped out of Sapulpa Junior High and enrolled at Clinton in West Tulsa. In a way, I was glad he did. As much as I liked the little fucker, he was about to get me killed. I hated Ricky Hicks, Johnny Horton and that asshole Booger Red after that. And even got into it with Booger Red once myself over a girl. Just wanted to let everyone know what it was like to hang around at the bus stop waiting for a ride to school. Did I ever stop taking up for the underdog? Never did. More stories to come. I am Tripper! Better Days!