Several years ago, a kid about 15 years old punched Catfish. The Fish was about 8 at the time. As you would expect, I was not happy and I went to have a chat with the kid’s parents. On asking one of the neighbors where the kid lived, I went there. When I found the house, the boy, his mother, and his grandparents were all in the back yard.
I’ve raised three kids and uncounted dogs. You develop an ability to ‘read’ a kid to some degree. On watching this boy while I spoke with his mother and grandparents ,just from his posture, his demeanor, and the way he looked at me and his parents, I knew this boy had troubles, heavy troubles. He didn’t have the eyes of a bad kid. He had the eyes of a kid who was just lost. Somewhere in the conversation with his mother and grandparents, I stopped being a pissed off dad, and I remembered the older kids while growing up in my neighborhood, Birdland.
I took the opportunity to tell this kid about one of the older kids in my neighborhood. This guy had no brothers or sisters, but he looked after the smaller kids in the neighborhood like they were his little brothers. He was the ultimate ‘You can do it’ kind of guy. Despite my paralyzing fear of heights, he helped me find the courage to ride the zip line from a 3 story tree house. He taught us all to play baseball, basketball and football. He showed me how to pole vault over a barbed wire fence using a bamboo pole he got from the carpet place. I can clearly remember this guy coaching me on how to sing Herman’s Hermit songs with a proper English accent despite my thick southern accent. My little brother perfected dribbling through his legs, spinning jumpshots and trick dunks on this guys dunk goal.
The kid listened to me as I told him about how this guy made us all better just by knowing him. To us, the littler kids in Birdland, this guy was a superhero. The kid who punched Catfish just looked at me as I explained the impact this kid had on all of us. I told him ‘Be the kid that the little kids run to when they are in trouble. Don’t be the kid they run from. Be the superhero.’
I don’t know what became of that kid. Fish never had anymore trouble with him.
After reflecting for a few minutes on growing up in Birdland, something struck me that I still contemplate to this very day. I know I will never know what it’s like to be a superhero, I do know what it’s like to have known one.
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