Mapleman
ArboristSite Operative
PART XV
Guido had a strong aversion for bullies. And on more than a few occasions that aversion had landed him in jail. The first time was in 1963 when he was 16. But in every dark cloud…
Guido grew up in Orange County--when there were still orange groves there…in the 50s and early 60s before a second wave of realtors, developers, and lawyers zeroed in on the place like frenzied sharks devouring chum…when Interstate 5 was a four lane road and the only “freeway” in town.
He and his buddies would skip high school every Friday afternoon, load up their surfboards and buy a case of beer, then drive out to the beach, listening to James Brown and the Beach Boys. One of his friends was a skinny black kid named Applejack. He was probably the only Afro-American surfer on Huntington Beach at the time.
Over a July Fourth weekend, with Huntington Beach packed with locals and out-of-towners, Guido, Applejack, and two local white girls partied fifty feet south of the pier. Four muscle headed, drunken yahoos from Bakersfield watched the inter-racial scene from their perch on the pier. They’d been turned down by every girl they had hit on that day and decided to rectify matters by instituting their own brand of social justice. They left the pier and surrounded Guido, Applejack, and the two girls, demanding to know by what right did a black boy have to be seen in public with a white girl, especially one in a two piece swim suit.
Guido decided to go for the biggest of the four first. He hit the yahoo square on the left side of the face with his right elbow, then whirled and grabbed the next goon by his T-shirt, pummeling him with his right fist. After he had taken the third to the ground with a sky move he’d become quite proficient at as captain of the Costa Mesa wrestling team, the remaining bigot fled the scene. One of the muscle heads got a broken jaw; another got a fractured eye socket; and Guido got a year of juvenile detention, as it was not his first offense.
Guido was raised for the most part by Dmitri--his Russian grandfather, climbing teacher, and survivor of Stalin’s gulags--and Dmitri, had he still been alive, would have been proud of the way Guido extricated himself from the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center.
In 1963, OCJDC occupied eight acres of land just south of downtown Anaheim. A dozen brick buildings comprising an administration center, mess hall, laundry, classrooms, dormitories, and recreational facilities were surrounded by a fifteen foot red brick wall topped with three strands of barbed wire. The place was lightly patrolled as climbing fifteen feet of smooth brick was not deemed possible, at least not by teenagers.
Inmates were provided with all essential hygienic products, including a daily allotment of dental floss. Over the course of six months, Guido hoarded floss. He bought it, stole it, and traded for it. He also attended welding classes where he fashioned a crude grappling hook.
A week short of his seventeenth birthday, the floss rope attained the thickness of a phone cord, fourteen feet long. Guido celebrated his birthday with Applejack and a fifth of Jack Daniels, his future as a climber now thoroughly assured.
Two decades later and five hundred and fifty miles to the north, Geena and Guido snorted coke and chased it with JD, celebrating the Geyser job and Guido’s thirty-fifth birthday. He sometimes mused if it might be his last...
Guido had a strong aversion for bullies. And on more than a few occasions that aversion had landed him in jail. The first time was in 1963 when he was 16. But in every dark cloud…
Guido grew up in Orange County--when there were still orange groves there…in the 50s and early 60s before a second wave of realtors, developers, and lawyers zeroed in on the place like frenzied sharks devouring chum…when Interstate 5 was a four lane road and the only “freeway” in town.
He and his buddies would skip high school every Friday afternoon, load up their surfboards and buy a case of beer, then drive out to the beach, listening to James Brown and the Beach Boys. One of his friends was a skinny black kid named Applejack. He was probably the only Afro-American surfer on Huntington Beach at the time.
Over a July Fourth weekend, with Huntington Beach packed with locals and out-of-towners, Guido, Applejack, and two local white girls partied fifty feet south of the pier. Four muscle headed, drunken yahoos from Bakersfield watched the inter-racial scene from their perch on the pier. They’d been turned down by every girl they had hit on that day and decided to rectify matters by instituting their own brand of social justice. They left the pier and surrounded Guido, Applejack, and the two girls, demanding to know by what right did a black boy have to be seen in public with a white girl, especially one in a two piece swim suit.
Guido decided to go for the biggest of the four first. He hit the yahoo square on the left side of the face with his right elbow, then whirled and grabbed the next goon by his T-shirt, pummeling him with his right fist. After he had taken the third to the ground with a sky move he’d become quite proficient at as captain of the Costa Mesa wrestling team, the remaining bigot fled the scene. One of the muscle heads got a broken jaw; another got a fractured eye socket; and Guido got a year of juvenile detention, as it was not his first offense.
Guido was raised for the most part by Dmitri--his Russian grandfather, climbing teacher, and survivor of Stalin’s gulags--and Dmitri, had he still been alive, would have been proud of the way Guido extricated himself from the Orange County Juvenile Detention Center.
In 1963, OCJDC occupied eight acres of land just south of downtown Anaheim. A dozen brick buildings comprising an administration center, mess hall, laundry, classrooms, dormitories, and recreational facilities were surrounded by a fifteen foot red brick wall topped with three strands of barbed wire. The place was lightly patrolled as climbing fifteen feet of smooth brick was not deemed possible, at least not by teenagers.
Inmates were provided with all essential hygienic products, including a daily allotment of dental floss. Over the course of six months, Guido hoarded floss. He bought it, stole it, and traded for it. He also attended welding classes where he fashioned a crude grappling hook.
A week short of his seventeenth birthday, the floss rope attained the thickness of a phone cord, fourteen feet long. Guido celebrated his birthday with Applejack and a fifth of Jack Daniels, his future as a climber now thoroughly assured.
Two decades later and five hundred and fifty miles to the north, Geena and Guido snorted coke and chased it with JD, celebrating the Geyser job and Guido’s thirty-fifth birthday. He sometimes mused if it might be his last...
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