Gary

Gary was one of the tough guys...he was big and funny thing was he spoke in a whisper as if he had to hoc a lung plug but it got stuck in his throat and he couldn't clear it...He got into a fight and something broke...Edward was having a board meeting in the garage that night and one of the staff ran over to get help as they couldn't break up the fight...You could feel Ed's presence before he even came into the house....a strange calm came over everyone ---the same quiet and stillness as you feel when a storm is approaching.....He bursted into the livingroom....and everyone hugged the walls....Ed went up to Gary ....You a tough guy....motioning towards the kid....No man...No man..as Gary hugged the wall further...putting his hand up trying to fend of a punch we all felt was to follow...Edward looked around at everyone watching him...he straightened up and went into his this is all for you guys speech...when you break something here..you are breaking part of your home...your house...we are all here for you guys...Man I never seen Ed have so much passion ---to bad he only felt this ..or expressed himself so intently for anyone hurting the home...but not having the same passion as someone hurting his charges...

Well with that..the next night Gary and a couple of us were heading off to the beer store...He tried to get in but the guy tagged him and asked him for ID..Gary said no problem.. left it in the car..be back later...so we then had to go to plan B..We asked anyone who was heading to the beer store if they wanted to make an easy 5 dollars....this was no big deal as out of 10 people we asked we got one....I have wondered since then whatever made people take the chance and buy us kids beer...what was funny was of all the different times we stood outside and asked we didn't have to wait long for someone to take us up on the Quick 5 dollars..hell sometimes the people would say don't worry about the 5 bucks...gee thanks...we would all say...and afterwards talk about the cool guy who turned down the $5 bucks....well anyway...on this night this guy says sure no problem...we give him the money for the beer plus the $5 bucks....we are watching as the 12 rolls down the rollers..and then horrified as the guy opens the 12 and takes out 2 beers and stuffs one each into his pocket then marches out of the store..he say here you go...I helped myself....we all started to question him...and he says hey...look you got your beer --what are you going to do call the cops because I ripped you off....and with that he turned and walked away laughing....Damn this guy didn't know who he was ripping off...we were not the average bunch of neighborhood kids....Gary was the first to react...he went up to the guy gave him 3 sharp blows in the back of the head.....another guy was reaching in and grabbing a bottle to smack the guy with...the guy must have sensed the situation was not over and without missing a beat he reached into his pockets and put the two beers on the ground and then put the $5 dollars under one of the beers and didn't turn back....he just kept on walking...We were all so surprized at the quick turn of events that we all broke up laughing...and with that we drank our beer and headed home..