They never called us delinquents--but the neighbors and merchants called us lots of other names such as rascals, no good, bad eggs, tough eggs, hoodlums and said that we should be in reform schools. Our mothers said we were just full of mischief and would outgrow it and eventually get some sense.

Really we were delinquents of varying degrees. Most of us took things that didn't belong to us off of front porches, in the grocery store or sometimes we got a few articles in the ten cent stores as these places put a lot of temptation in front of us. We had gang fights, personal fight, but seldom used knives or guns because we did not have the movies and television to educate us in the use of these accessories. I did hit a larger boy once with a ‘tippy-stick’ leaving him with a scar that he wore for years just for throwing my ‘tippy’ over somebody's fence.

If that had happened today, I could have got my picture in the paper and got an interview with Judge Kaufman and become a hero with the old gang as that was what they admired.

A truthful kid was just as hard to find in those days, as now. If you knew one, he was usually a Mama's boy, and had no standing with the gang. We knew right from wrong as our mothers, teachers and the minister or priest told us constantly about it. Excitement and being a real he-kid seemed more important and our behavior was a kind of spontaneous thing.

Naturally we felt sorry about these things, especially after a session with our dad or the teacher--but a kid forgets easily and that's the fun of being a boy and learning how to behave.

I remember a few boys that attended reform school and it seldom changed them. As I recall now, most of these boys came from families that seemed to be proud of the tough character of their boys and they themselves had never matured and their children followed in their footsteps.