Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Big Bear|29 palms|Teenager in a skate team|Part 4

That night turned out to be one of the weirdest nights of my life.

After the kid got hit by his uncle and we being kids did not know how to deal with, we chose to do what most kids do and we ignored the situation.

When we got to the main cabin the uncle played our voicemails so that all the younger kids could listen to us and laugh , all the little kids had no idea that we were all dealing with a person that was a little off or maybe a lot .

The kid got sent out to a part of the cabin that we did not have access to...(really weird now that I think of it)

We were sent to out cabin were all the older teenagers would sleep.

And the uncle stood with the younger kids uphill at the main cabin.

An hour into our supposed to sleeping time the uncle came in ,we were all messing around trying our hardest to settle down because the long and crazy day that we had so far.

He told us that we were punished and because we were punished we had to give him all our blankets,pillows,jackets and stuff and that we were not allowed to have any comforts because of the trouble that we had been to him and that we should of never called him to come get us and that it was the only rule that he made for us and how could we not even follow that rule, he even took the phone.

We just wanted him out of the room so we agreed to his terms and he left. We had a rough night that night trying to keep warm in the middle of a mountain with only the mattresses to keep us warm....we built a fort made of the beds and laid in between them and tried our hardest to keep warm.

In the morning we were all angry and could not believe that we were made to survive in the cold like that.

So some of us, skated down the mountain to a store that we found and called our parents to come pick us up.

My parents came to get me and some of the other kids got rides back but there were still a few kids that were left behind that either did not want to call their parents or were not able to get their parents to come and give them a ride.

It was a really weird experience, we all just told our parents that we just did not want to be there anymore but I am pretty sure none of us gave our parents any details for fear that they would never let us out unsupervised again or at least thats why I did not tell my parents about it.

The skate team continued to form and I would see the truck full of kids heading out to the cabin every weekend and then one day they all came by to pick me up saying that the uncle bought a really big property in 29 palms and they were going to build a half pipe there for the skate team.

But I never went with them again, I knew things were not the way they were suppose to be with that kids uncle and made sure to keep my distance.

This survival skill kept me safe from alot of things in City Terrace and it is a tool that I still use in my everyday life to keep me well away from trouble.

If my gut says no then it Means "Hell NO!!" and stay away far, far away.

Always wondered who that guy really was and if he really was that kids uncle and I also wonder why this guy kept buying far away places to take all these kids to.

That's it , Thanks for reading...now to post some not so sour stuff if you know what I mean...


Evilchavo Out.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Big Bear|29 palms|Teenager in a skate team|Part 3

So the kid called his uncle and told him around where we were....

The kid was frightened, we could tell and this did not seem normal to me...the amount of fear that this kid was showing made it seemed like he knew that he should not of called and that by him calling he had just something terribly, terribly wrong.

We could hear the truck before we saw it and we knew that it was not driving at a safe speed we all ducked out of the way when the truck came around the bend to pick us up.

He told us all to get in the back of the truck and yelled at him to get in the front, when he tried to explain that he got lost he was told to shut up.

As we drove off, The uncle hit the kid straight across the face...hard....this guy was big, not fat just thick like a bear. We all scattered across the back trying to figure out what happened and why the kid got hit so hard.

We were all from the neighborhood and all knew about violence, we grew up in it..but it was different this time...something was wrong...we knew that this was not the fantastic journey that it had started out as.

To Be continued...

Evilchavo Out.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Big Bear|29 palms|Teenager in a skate team|Part 2

So , all the teenager got geared up and after listening to some Violent Femmes for inspiration, we headed down the paths to the center of town with the kid that knew his way around.

He was a teenager also so he was allowed to go with us , he took us down a path by a lake that we all skated down.

On our way down the path that is bordered with pine trees and air that smelled so clean and was so cold , we all realized that we in our cargo shorts and skate t-shirts were not properly dressed for Big Bear but did not care and our sense of adventure was the only thing on our mind.

We headed down the way to the center of town walking up to it and past all the weird houses with confederate flags and us flags flying high in the sky.

We felt like the only Mexican kids and did not feel weird about it , in fact we were glad that we were the only ones there that seemed Mexican and enjoyed what seemed like alot of attention.

As we walked into town with our skateboards in our arms the local police man drove by to say hello and we all said hello and laughed at the fact that he was so weird looking and weak compared to the bad ass La cops that we had to stare down on a daily basis.

We walked past all the tourists looking in the stores at stuff that we could not afford and wondering where the best spot to skate in this town would be and found basically nothing.

Nothing except for some other kids that were super excited that there were other kids in town their age that skated and they introduced us to the only two skate bettys (Chicks that dig skaters) the holy grail of girlfriends for us in those days.

We skated around for a while and then they all gave us a ride down to their house so we could party...was like 5 or 6 of us from City Terrace riding on the hood, trunk and crammed into this kids tiny little car.

We drank and had fun and I think one of the guys made good friend with one of the skate girls.....the kid got drunk and we did not know our way back to the cabin.

It was like 3 in the morning and we were all cold and tired and the buzz was fading and the kid with the car was gone and we had no idea where we were but did not want to go and wander around in town or the woods so we forced the kid to call his uncle, we called several times and left messages and he finally got a hold of his uncle.

We knew that this was something we were not suppose to do but did not see what the big deal was, The kid after talking his uncle sobered up real fast....He was scared , really scared..he turned really pale and told us his uncle was on his way.we did not know what he had been told but we assumed that he got yelled at and that his uncle would just come and pick us up.

He did, but that is not all that happened......To be continued

Evilchavo Out.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Big Bear|29 palms|Teenager in a skate team|Part 1

I was a pretty good skater in my teens and I always skated at Robert F. Kennedy Elementary school in City Terrace it was my skate spot.

It had fiberglass benches and stairs and tables that we could skate all day and was always the place we would meet at before heading out to look for skate spots.

One of the guys that lived in the hills came by with a kid , kinda shy that had never been there before and was learning how to ollie so was not very good yet.

But as always if you could keep up ,you could go on the long trips with the more experienced skaters.

This kid was o.k. and could keep up but did not want to go anywhere with us and would always meet us at the school and would always leave when who we thought was his dad would come by in a pick up truck to pick him up but he said it was his uncle.

This kid always had money though and would always buy us soda or chips or whatever we wanted....he never went to the store with us...he would just give us the money and we would go and get him whatever he wanted....Mercado Hidalgo was just down the street so it was no big deal.

One day (When I was not around) they all went to the house of the kid and talked to the uncle who I thought was the dad and he said that he would sponsor them and that day they formed a skate team.

I don't rememder the name of the skate team anymore it was only a short time that I was in that skate team due to our trip to Big Bear.

So one day all the guys came over and told me that we were all going to Big Bear and that we were going to sleep over and be over there for three days .

My mom never let me sleep over anyones house , she always would say ..."I don't care what time you come home but come home"

We all got together and talked to my mom and stepdad and after lots of promises to clean the yard and the house and the car I was allowed to go but only after they met the kids uncle.

The uncle came to our house and talked to my parents and they deemed him trustworthy after he told them he would keep a close eye on us and make sure that none of us got into any trouble.

I was so excited, I had only gone back and forth to Mexico and never anywhere out of Los Angeles for anything and thought that this was an awesome thing to do....we of course convinced ourselves that we were and awesome skate team and that we deserved to be going on tour to have a demo and that no one in Big Bear skated and that we would be bringing skateboarding to a new place.

We all loaded up the truck with skateboards and parts for the skateboard and backpacks with clothes and got picked up by this kids uncle.

He drove and the kid sat right next to him for all of the trip and a few of the other friends but the rest of us sat in the back anticipating the awesome things that we were about to experience in this mountain lake area most of us had never been to.

We got there and it was a big parcel of Land with a main house by the roadway and another down the hill of what looked like a forest.

We were all gathered at the main house and told that we were going to have a meeting and that the kids uncle needed to talk to all of us at once.

He told us the rules.....basically I stay here with all the young kids cause they need supervision and all the teenagers stay at the house down the hill and could do whatever they want...there was one rule for us teenagers and that was if you go into town...you can't call up for a ride and if you do everyone will be in really big trouble.

It did not make much sense to us but we did not care all we wanted to do was skate down to the center or town and have fun. So we agreed and went on our way.

To be continued....


Evilchavo Out.