Pizza House Rumble
February 19th, 2010 . by Alexander FisherMt. Sterling wasn’t always a very friendly place for someone who went to high school in London. Many times, I had been in a car driving there with several other London teenagers hell-bent on kicking some Sterling ass once they arrived there. Usually over some minor incident, trivial or imagined. It was a slightly smaller town, about 15 miles from London, and that made for a nice little ride before you got there so that you could strategize on the coming carnage, yet not one ass ever got kicked on any one of the trips I went on. By high school I had made many friends in Mt. Sterling. Once on an ass kicking trip, one of my London “friends” told me he would personally kick my ass if I didn’t help him beat up someone from Mt. Sterling that evening. I told him he might just have to try that.
My Friend Dennis.
By 1974, I had a mostly different set of friends. I had known Dennis for several years but we had grown closer in the recent past. We also continued to be friends for years to come, even sharing an apartment after high school. Dennis’ father was a single parent with two other older children. He worked for the state like my father, but both were better acquainted from the local taverns. His father was very strict, so anything that caused Dennis to arrive home after his established curfew could be stressful for me and my parents as well. Many nights I would arrive home late only to find my mother on the telephone with his father.
Dennis by far got the most severe punishments for anything that we got caught doing. Sometimes he would be grounded for months. I spent many Friday and Saturday nights with him at his house, when he was even allowed to have company. I could easily get out of my punishments after a few days. As a teenager being annoying sometimes had its benefits. Dennis never could get out of anything. His father was a stone wall.
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