My Buddy Butchie

My Buddy Butchie

There was Larry, Butchie, Louie, Jim and I that pretty much hung together. We were all about 14 or so, as I remember it. We were pretty much unseperatable in the summer. Swimming, running the fields and woods and just enjoying life, as kids did in those days.

We didn't have video games and much in the way of TV back then. All you had during the day on TV was a test pattern anyway. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves and were masters at it. What we used was imagination. Something that seems to be lacking now days in our kids.

In those days Larry S was my best friend. We were always together. We had a lot in common like a distane for school. We did a lot of flunking together. He was into hunting and fishing which was all I thought about. Girls were starting to look good though.

Butchie was a nice guy. Real fat and easily led, which we tookadvantage of on more than one occasion. He was the butt of many of our jokes but funny as heck.

Louie was a bit slow. His old man owned the sawmill and was the meanest man I ever met. I saw him run Louie out of the house one time, shooting at him with a pistol. He was a little husky kid and our friend.

Jim was a disapointment to his parents. He was very artistic and smart. He could draw, paint and give him a glob of clay and in a few minutes he handed you a deer or a dog or almost anything you could ask for. Problem was he hung with Larry and I and flunked everything but art. His parents even took him up to the University in Ann Arbor to have mental tests to see if he was retarted. Come to find out he had a near Genuis IQ! That pissed them off as they thought he was stupid, not just lazy.

Funny but Larry's, Jim's and my parents all blamed our poor showing in school on the other two of us. They tried to keep us apart but nothing worked. Jims mother would even go so far as to hide his pants on him and he would just wear his sisters. Those were the days when girls jeans buttoned up the side, unlike now days. We could always tell when Jim was in trouble, he would be wearing the "sissy" jeans. He was a brave feller cuz his mother was big enough to eat hay!

One thing we would pull in on some summer evenings, when we could talk Buchie into it, was to get Buch to play dead, along the highway in front of the sawmill. He would always resist but we could talk Butch into almost anything.

What we would do is all raid our refrigs and get eggs and maters. Louie was a bit light in the lofers and liked to use dog crap! He had a big dog named Noogie. That damn dog had the biggest, nastiest turds you ever saw and that damn fool Louie would go get a bag full on them to use. He woud pick them up in his bare hands and ball them up like a damn snowball!! He seemed to like doing it in fact. Disgusted me!

We would hide in the logs at the sawmill across the road and Butch would lay along the highway and play dead. This was after dark and there was a street light a down the road a little. It cast enough light so they could see the fat little dummy but they could not see us.

When a car would come along and the occupants see fat little Butchie a laying in the dirt, they would usually come to a screeching hault and start getting out and come to the poor kids aid. That is when we would cut loose with our ammo. Eggs and maters and damn Louie with his turd balls! I should say slop balls as he wasn't interested in them if they weren't loose enough to pack! Damn fool kid! :0(

We would jump up and start a yelling and that would make them stop and turn toward us, giving Butch a chance to get his chubby little arse up and take off a running. We would start a laughing and throwing. When we ran out of ammo we would head down the hill and into the swamp. Nobody ever caught us. Most of us that is. Poor Butchie...:0)

One night we were all set with Butchie laying along the road and we were in position. Along comes a car and it screeched to a hault. Damn Corvette with a couple young guys in it! Butch jumped up and laughed and started a running. We were a yelling and throwing our eggs, maters and turds. That vette had its top down as it was a beautiful night. Man what a mess! We unloaded our ammo and headed out. One started after us and then stopped. They both looked at Butches pitiful attempt at retreat and headed for him. He was a squalling and yelling for us to help him and we were having not of that of course. He was dumb enough to listen to us, he ought to be wuppped I was a thinking!!

We didn't hesitate in our flight to the swamp and when we got there we stopped to decide what to do. We talked it over and figured, after all Butch was a buddy and we put the damn fool up to it. We were all in it together and ought to face the music together. We decided that since we were a bit winded and it is not good for us to wear ourselves out, we would wait a half hour and go up and help Butch.

We waited the half hour, mebby a bit more as we felt it would be best for our health if we were well rested, and headed up to the road. Nobody was around! Dang we weren't gonna be able to save Butchie! We were worried that they had maybe killed the fat dummy. We even looked for the body but none was to be found. Worried as we were we decided it was best if we just went to our homes and called it a night. I figured someone would find the body if he was kilt anyhow and there was no sense in us hunting in the dark.

Next day we all met and headed for Butchies house. We all got there and I sent Louie, as he was pretty dumb his, own self, up to Butchies front door to call for him. That is what we did in those days, instead of knocking, just stand out and yell the kids name. Butchie!! Butchie!! Louie called.

The chubby little bastud came out madder than hell. He was banged up a bit but in one piece. Seems that they caught him and slapped the piss out of him. Then he had to clean the car. There were no car washes in those days and they hauled his arse down to Cass Lake and sat back and drank beer while he cleaned the eggs, matters and dog turd balls off the car.

He really seemed to take exception to Louies turd balls! We all laughed about it and Butch even lightened up a bit after a couple weeks. We never could get him to play the dummy along the road again though.

I had forgotten all about this prank and want to thank Steve for waking up the memory for me. That was a different world back then--------

I have not seen any of those guys in 35 or 40 years. Shame to let that wo