The Tap

This story started a couple months back and I didn't know where to go with it. However, during a morning bike ride today it came together. It may be long so bear with me.... Oh ya, as for that bike ride it was 33 miles to my office this morning and I am tired. However, I am really dreading the 33 miles back when it's 90-something degrees. I may have to take the more direct route which will cut it to 22 or so... naw, that's for wimps!

Anyway back to my story... my kids are 5 and 6. I like to think they don't "see" skin color. That is, Kitty Kat and myself try not to describe someone by the color of their skin but instead look for other attributes to describe them. Obviously we would not make derogatory comments or sterotypical jokes. The kids thus have no reason to think anything different of a person regardless of their skin color. A couple months back Kitty Kat and the kids were at swim practice. After practice the kids sit in the jacuzzi and mess around. The little dude had a problem with another kid, as there is a lot of rough housing in the oversized jacuzzi, and came over to Kitty Kat to explain his problem.

He said to her, "that brown kid is pushing me...." The "brown kid" was African American. How nice is that to see that my kids don't think to call someone "black" or even "African American." It's just another kid who happens to have brown skin. I liked the story but didn't know where to go with it. Let me see if I can connect this around for you....

Back in eighty six the SacTownGuy graduated high school down in LA. The school was racially diverse. I don't remember the numbers but I would guess it was 65% "minorities" and 35% whiteboys but that's just a guess. The question then is who is the "minority," right? It was a public school located in central LA which drew from all parts of the city. Anyway, I left there with a strong interest in gang life and rap music among other things. No the SacTownGuy was not in a gang. I just found it interesting.

So the SacTownGuy went off to college and the college pairs you with another "similar" person right? So what's the first criteria they looked at back then? Yes, sex first and then what was second? Race, of course. We had 4 guys in my suite and my roommate, that first semester, was another white guy. He was from Mendocino county. Ok, for those that don't know that's about as far away from LA, in geography, culture and everything as is possible in the great state of Cali. Yes our skin color was the same but our similarties ended there. He was a pot smoking, heavy metal music, muscle car driving, long hair, very white guy. I was rap music listening, VW driving, short hair, and as far as I knew at the time, hip dude! Our two suite mates were paired by ethnicity; a Hispanic and an African American. Did the people that selected that pair never read about jail life in California prisons and who fights the most between each other?

Well anyway, I became much better friends with the African American guy, "DJ." He was a middle class kid from Seattle. Our interests were much more alligned than my interest with the heavy metal dude from Mendo. DJ and I became good friends and he became my roommate the second semester. The pot smoker left and was busted a month later for selling drugs out of his dorm room. Imagine if he had been busted when I was roommates with him... would I have been implicated? Could have changed the course of my life. Anyway, DJ was the coolest guy. DJ was a football player, a smooth dresser, always had the sunglasses on but low on his nose, walked slow and very cool, never in a rush, and was really the epitome of a cool cat! He was so cool he ironed his underwear!

DJ was pledging a major fraternity at the time. We won't say the name but let's just say it's the "O" fraternity. We were roommates during his pledge period which was eye opening to me. We thought we hazed in my fraternity and then DJ told me some stories. I thought it was so cool I instituted some of their hazing ideas into our pledge program. The last week of my fraternity's pledge program, until they got kicked off campus in the 90's, included carrying a brick, wearing the same cloths all week, not showering, and a whole host of other things that the O fraternity did. I was so into their fraternity and their ownership I had my fraternity nickname changed to "My Frat." To this day I bet if I see my man Matt C down in LA he will say to me, "good morning big brother My Frat Sir, how is your day going...." All learned from O frat.

Well, anyway the O frat likes to get "tapped" after they cross into the brotherhood after the pledge period. They got big O's branded onto their arms. One Sunday night we were sitting around chopping it up... cuz you know I didn't study a lot! DJ was there, Terry, Vinski and I think my man D-latz also. I believe it was Terry who came up with the idea and started bending a coat hanger into the shape of a triangle to represent the first letter of my frat, Delta Sigma Phi. It actually was a two piece brand with two sides of the triangle on one piece and then a second piece which made the bottom of the triangle. He did think to scrape the paint off also... because branding toxic paint into one's skin probably wouldn't be good!

We went over the Vinski's apartment on campus because he had a stove to heat up the brand. I should say I was stone cold sober that night. DJ, Terry, Vinski and I believe also D-latz and my man Jimmy, aka: The Top Mack Nigga was there. Doing the brand first involves numbing the arm. This was done by repeatedly slapping my arm (which did start to hurt a little bit) until it was really red and then icing it down. Once it was determined to be numb Vinski lit the stove, heated up the two sides of the triangle, gave the first piece of the brand to Terry, and Terry applied it to my arm. Guess what? Well, my arm was wet from the ice and thus the brand slipped creating a bigger triangle than planned but it turned out fine. I felt ok so they did the second part of the brand and applied it to my arm. Sizzzzzzle. My brand was done. It honestly did not hurt. However, I started to smell my burning skin and fell to the ground. Not sure if I actually passed out but might have. I like to think that was my only weak point of the night but it was funny so has to be mentioned.

As mentioned in a previous post I should thank god that my white skin is not prone to keyloting and the brand totally faded within 6 or 7 years. It can not be seen today, 22 years later. I remember seeing my momz a week or two after I got the tap and she was appaled by it. More appalled than that dumb ear ring I got the first month after arriving at college. I had that thing for 8 months and still have the F'ing hole in my ear... mom was right about that one for sure!

How the heck does this all get back to my little dude talking about the brown kid? Well, I am not a professional writer so you can put that together. It worked for me so I went with it.

peace out.