Tee was our friend that lived on Cliveden. He was a really cool kid. One thing that was always cool about Tee is that e knew how to do back flips. Man was that the coolest thing? He could do them from almost any position. It was like one month he was going to the boys and girls club everyday, then next thing you know he comes back more athletic. The summer time was awesome. We were either playing video games or doing things outside. These were really fun times. I don't know if Eddie was thinking of this but I just thought about how cool it would be if Tee met our other Brother TY. TY is not a blood relative but I've known him since 1984 (the year he was born). The thing about TY was that he was always moving. He lived in Compton on Glencoe one week, the next week he'd be living in the jungles in LA. So if we had managed to get a hold of him, it was always a joyous occasion when he came over. So one weekend, we tracked him down and it was set. We were gonna pick him up from his grandmother's house. I thought Tee and TY would get along great! They were both athletic, they both like video games, both of their first names started with a T, and they were both dark skinned. I felt that with both of them there, we would have even more fun.
So the weekend finally came. My dad went to go pick TY up on his way home from my late grandmother's house on Pearl. Since my dad got paid that day, we were able to go pick up some fast food. We went to Columbia Burger on Central, right off the 91. Their burgers have always been great. I still go there today. Anyway, we got burgers all around and made our way home. To make things even better, Harlem Nights was on TNT! That meant it was censored. So I didn't have to close my eyes during the sex scenes, because there was none!
After we ate, we hooked up Ty's Sega Genesis. Now we had never played Sega Genesis anytime before that, so it was really exciting to finally get to try it out. We had Sonic the hedgehog 1 and Shinobi I believe. We played the game until the wee hours of the night. We all fell asleep in the living room.
The next morning we awoke to pancakes, eggs, and bacon, a rariTy in my household. So we were ecstatic. After a hearTy breakfast, the time had come. It was time to go outside to play and finally introduce TY and Tee. Tee was already outside with his dad helping him wipe his car down. We walked across the street to Tee's house. "Tee this is Ty, our friend we told you about." It looked like everything was going to turn out well.
The first thing we did was play basketball. Tee had a court in his backyard. We picked teams. My bother Eddie was notorious for siding with TY in any competition. He always wanted to be on Ty's team no matter what. I paired with Tee. Now this was an obvious disadvantage because Tee and I both were bigger than Eddie. At the time he was only 6 or 7. Mismatch indeed and of course we smashed them. I can remember TY being upset at the loss. At 11-12 years old winning is very important to a child. Of course he needed an opportunity to redeem himself.
Contest #1. Street Fighter 2.
TY has always been good at street fighter. Better than us in particular. This contest was no exception. I think Street Fighter was the best game he had so that’s all he played. His style was very patient and mature for an 11 year old. He beat everybody with Guile. I mean he ran through us. I got so used to losing that I wasn't even vengeful. Eddie didn't even try to play TY. He knew better, that was his main man. This time around he played as his cheerleader. I was very close to slapping the shit out of him a few times but I let it ride, I knew how he got around TY. Never the less...TY had this one hands down.
Winner: TY
Contest #2 Football
Of course, it was the same teams as basketball. Me and Tee vs TY and Eddie. Another Mismatch. On our team I played quarter back because I was too slow to outrun TY but fast enough to outrun Eddie. This put TY and Tee against each other at wide receiver and cornerback. This was gonna be interesting.
Around this time, I believe Tee was playing pop warner football or had just started, so while playing against TY he seemed a little more skillful. Our End zone was a elongated dip that separated my Great grandmother's yard from her neighbor's yard. We had to tread softly because this was an ultra NO-NO. You never played on your neighbor's yard whether it was maintained or not. More on this later.
Anyway, Tee was beating Ty...badly. Ty was doing his damndest to not get beat. I would hike the ball and just observe them down the yard. They would take off and Ty would try to jam Tee at the line with a hard shove. This is where Ty would usually get beat. Tee would either avoid him completely or do a swim move which Ty didn't know how to defend. He was obviously frustrated and began to get violent. Every other play when Ty would get beat, he would deliver a hammerfist to Tee's back. All you could hear was a deep thud so I knew it was taking a toll on Tee. A few times, he came back to the huddle on the verge of crying but he seemed to tough it out. This was turning into quite the rivalry indeed.
We were going by the old 21-skunk rule where the first team to be up by 21 points wins automatically. Skunk is an understatement compared to what we did to Eddie and Ty. Ty was obviously getting frustrated, yelling furiously at my little brother. I didn't defend him because in relationships, you have to take the good with the bad. He chose his side so I had no sympathy.
LOSE
Winner: Tee
Contest #3 Gymnastics
This was a full on rivalry at this point. Things were starting to get heated. Ty was furious from losing in football and needed to redeem himself. So right after the game the first thing they wanted to do was gymnastics. We spoke very highly of Tee and his acrobatics. He could do a plethora of flips and twists. His backflips were most impressive. If you were a kid and you could do a backflip, you were the man. Ty could do good front flips but he was limited. Unfortunately he could only do flips on a bed or another Type of soft bouncy surface. He could not do back flips at all. This was gonna be interesting.
Tee immediately started with his backflips. Ty had no answer. He made some attempts but the ended up looking like half-assed side rolls. He had know idea how to do one. He would start from a squatted position and bounce up. i guess this was his way of securing his safety as doing standing backflips does have the potential to cause injury if done incorrectly. It wasn't looking to good for TY.
Winner: Tee
Contest #4 Racing
Racing is every kid’s favorite past time. If you wanted to prove your superiority over another, you raced each other. It was getting later in the evening and Ty and Tee had been rough with each other all day. Tee's shirt was ripped and his back was bruised. Tee wasn't an aggressive guy so he didn't fight Ty back. He just took it. I guess he took pride in knowing he bested Ty in all their contests versus responding back with violence.
We marked off their racing lanes and the finish line. The sidewalk could not contain the tension between them, so they had to race in the street. I stood on the side to give the "go!" Eddie was at the finish line to make sure a true winner could be determined. "On your mark.....get seeeet....." WHOOPS! Ty jumped. A little anxious there? He got back on the line. "On your mark....get set................GO!" They took off running. Ty had got a better start than Tee. He was running his hardest and so was Tee. It was only about a 40 yard sprint so Tee had to pick up the pace. By the 20th yard Tee came with a burst of speed from hell and started to "hawk" Ty. Ty was now losing. With only about 15 yards to go, things didn't look good for Ty. Then miraculously Tee seemed to have tripped. He tried to regain his footing but it was no use. He hit the concrete hard. Was he just clumsy or was his shoes untied? Neither. Ty had tripped him. Let me rephrase that, he tripped the shit out of him. As Ty crossed the finish line, Tee laid there on the grown wallowing in pain. I ran over to examine the damage. No scuffs or scrapes thank goodness. A strong sense of uneasiness came over us. Tee had to take up for himself. Tee began to get up off the ground. He was crying but infuriated. We were waiting for a tumultuous explosion. Ty just stood there looking as if he was almost proud of his deed. Then out of nowhere......Tee made a beeline to his house. We assumed he was going to tell his mother what happened. We didn't want any part of that.
These contest were not official, it was us just going about our routine. We were just playing plain and simple. It just turned into something else. I think Ty's problem is that he considered us to be "HIS" friends. He didn't want to share us. So it turned into a battle. It could have been one of those alpha male moments where Ty was just trying to show his dominance but who knows. After that incident Ty and Tee were cool with each other. Whenever Ty would come over it would be a happy time for everybody. There was no more fighting and competitions. Just good clean fun. They probably wont even remember this.
