The Chase

This happened on a Sunday late summer afternoon, soon after dinner.. Hank and I already had supper, and decided to walk over to play with the Edfords boys. We called them at their home and someone said they were across the street behind Reinhart's candy store. We walked across Addison St., cut through a persons yard, and saw two Edfords brothers They were laughing and running around. We asked what was so funny, and they said, "watch everytime you hit this kid with a stick he cusses like a wild man." They couldn't stop laughing, and soon one of the boys hit the boy with a stick. the boy started to cuss like a crazy truck driver, screaming and yelling at the Edford boys.

Hank and I were just going to leave when someone came running out of the house, and the Edfords boys ran away. A big man stood there, looked at me and Hank and said, "Ok boys you think thats funny, well I'll teach you two a lesson you won't forget." and started walking towards us. We started running when the man, his wife and son were on our heals. We ran through yards, jumping over fences, climbing through holes in fences trying to evade capture. We were just bystanders and these people were sure Hank and I teased their boy. We couldn't lose them. It must have been a half hour or more, and we already ran from Austin Ave. to Nagel Ave. and from Addison St. to Irving Pk.. They still were too close for comfort. A few times we hid behind things, and they spotted us and continued the chase.

After another fifteen minutes or more, I noticed we were close to my cousins house, so Hank and I headed for his home. The trio at this time were getting very close, and we could hear them yelling at us. We could hear, "We'll get you if it takes us all evening. We'll teach you punks." Hank and I zig zagged through two or three yard, and ran into cousin Paul's back yard and hid under his back porch. We were hidden in amoung old boards and cans and other trash. We layed quietly on the ground, as close as possible, under the stairs of the porch. We didn't make a sound,or even move a muscle. We could hear them talking, but couldn't understand what they were saying. For ten or fifteen minutes they circled the the area but couldn't spot us. Finally, after a half hour or more, we slowly crawled to the door or the house and tried the door. It opened, then Hank and I crawled into the house. We closed the door very quietly

My cousin Paul, jumped up from a chair. He was home alone, and was listening to a radio program. We scared the daylights out of him. He told us our aunt and uncle were out for the evening, so we visited with him until almost dark, before we headed for home. Even when we left him, we took a completely different way home, just in case.

Now Hank and I often wonder what would have happened if they caught us. Would the beat us?, torture us? kill us? I never saw people so mad as they were. We wondered , what was in the brown paper bag that they carried? What was the rope for? And we didn't do anything. We just arrived in the ally and saw what happened. It was a scary evening, even for us.