No doubt about it, kids can be cruel, and tormenting each other was a major activity. Some of it was to determine the natural pecking order of the gang. Most of it was probably just to relieve the boredom; there's just so much time you can spend having fun.

The guys might just start out by picking on someone, making fun of everything he'd say. Perhaps they'd then hide his glove, or smack him upside the head and deny who did it. A nice game of salugee, where a personal belonging was tossed around and kept out of his reach was always a real party breaker.

My crew was adept at "cutting out" from each other. This meant that at a particularly opportune time, everyone, would dash off, leaving the object of the prank alone to deal with a situation. I remember a time when I rushed out from supper to go to what I thought was a big game. For about 1/2 an hour I waited alone on a rather tough block in some unfriendly turf only to realize that the guys were having a wonderful time watching me sweat it out from afar. Ah the joyful memories of those wonderful youthful bonds.