Sherryh said:
Its called covering the wagons. I'm still waiting for the names of the roadway gang
You know every one of them. I was not one, and neither was CF.
Actually there was never a Roadway "gang." There was at least one incident of a group of UPS workers bullying a weakling by forcing him out of their car while on a return trip to campus from having worked the night shift at UPS. The site of the drop-off was a Roadway trucking company terminal near Dyer or Chicago Heights or some such.
Because I was best friends with the ring leader of that group (DC), many thought that I, too, was part of the "gang." I never worked at UPS, but unfortunately I had a reputation for bullying weaklings; so it was reasonable for people to believe that I was in that group.
As for "gangsters" and such, these too were non-existence. There were "cliques" who competed against each other for numbers on their bus routes, the adoration of co-eds, and the envy of lesser-known preacher boys. I certainly was involved with that.
There were two major cliques -- one dubbed the DN group; the other dubbed the DC group. I belonged to the DC group. The fact is that the highest attendance day for the DN group was less than the average day for the DC group. Alas, the DN group was more popular with the faculty and staff -- their leader having arrived to HAC from one of the more influential of JH's cohorts.
JV was courted heavily by both groups. We all wanted his approval. He showed respect to members from both groups, and seemed to play us against each other. It is true that JV held boxing matches at the bus barn -- such matches in which I was forced (and I do mean "forced") to participate. CF loathed the idea, but JV forced him to box a much weaker opponent, upon which CF obliterated the poor fellow up against the front of a bus. JV forced me to box a person who had just been in a match, and was thoroughly beaten and exhausted. "Hit him!" Vineyard yelled at me, "or I'll hit you!" To this day I get sick at the sight in my mind of that poor fellow crashing on his back with his head hitting the concrete floor.
