for bruce

have spoken of early life petty-crime career, before and after being offered a miraculous 4th strike by a juvenile court justice, at age 12.
i had come to clearly see how sloppiness, arrogance and/or misplaced trust had led to being caught those 3 previous times.
my mind-set during that era was much like most of my running-mates, the crime wasn't in what one did....IT WAS IN GETTING CAUGHT !!!

so-o-o....life's mission became just that....DON'T GET CAUGHT !!!
and how was that to play out ?
plan, plan, plan some more....and trust no-one !

throughout all of the other challenges from age 12 to 16, my petty-crime career continued, without ever being apprehended.
of course, i became full of myself, thinking i was quite the "master-thief " in the making.....how romantic !

it wasn't really about how large the score was, it was about how often.
in fact, it seemed reasonable that if the crimes remained "petty", the likelihood of being pinched was less.

my lifestyle demanded certain things, which therefore required....cash flow.
i was addicted to cigarettes, and needed to support my soda pop, chips and candy habits.....like any kid.
at least, any kid from my neighbourhood.
my father, of course, was taking any and all earnings from my hard labours.
it's not hard to do that math !

my next elder brother, who for some time had been my main partner in crime, had started to run with a slightly older crowd by the time i'd reached 16 yrs of age.
one of his buddies was this muscle bound black guy named "bruce lewis", who at that time, was about 19 years old.
he was somewhat of a legend in our end of town, considered by far the toughest fighter around.
nobody messed with brucey !

during my personal adventures with petty crime, i had become increasingly more fearful of being nabbed,
having reached the magical age of 16, which of course meant that the consequences of being caught would surely be jail.

at some point i had noticed that bruce hadn't been around for a few weeks, so i asked my brother what was up.
he replied, "you haven't heard....brucey's dead....they found him hanging in his cell down at the barton street jail....an apparent suicide !"

"no way !", i thought, not bruce....even at 16 yrs of age, i did not buy that story at all.

i also knew this older guy from the neighbourhood who worked as a jailhouse guard, and i'd heard a few stories about how the guards would gang up on a prisoner and provoke the unfortunate one into fighting.

no doubt in our minds....brucey was a fearsome fighter....and not one of us could fathom that he would actually commit suicide.
who knows what the truth was ?
but we were convinced....he had surely been goaded into fighting with a pack of guards, which therefore sealed his fate.

i will always remember bruce lewis as having most likely saved my life.

there was absolutely no doubt within me that i would not have survived jail or prison.
i was just too volatile and vulnerable to male human animal aggression.
fortunately i knew this....and from that point on, the petty-crime career stopped.

thank you, bruce !
for this dude, you did not die in vain !

















my father was keeping any and all earnings from my hard labours.
not hard to do that math !