‘Twas the Summer of 1888
Joseph Ponce, an 11 year old boy who lives in a town in New York along the Hudson. Beacon, New York, to be specific. He was just enjoying his summer after being shipped off to boarding school by his parents. However, on another side of the animal kingdom, a family of beavers have been eyeing up the Hudson. They planned to build a dam that would flood both sides of the Hudson, and that would be a disaster for the town of Beacon.
The sound of a bell ringing was heard around the town. Some people followed the sound and found Joseph Ponce ringing a handheld bell with a sign that advertised his newly installed water closet. “Take a peek at my water closet!” he hollered, “Only one penny!” Joseph Ponce was wearing the same clothes as every other boy in the town. He sported a collared, button-down shirt tucked into his knickers that were tucked into his socks. There was a nice and orderly single-file line, but nothing good lasts. Ida Rogers came up and everyone got out of the way. Joseph didn’t even bother to charge her the penny. Ida was most known for beating up kids, boys and girls alike. She had that stare on her, eyes slightly squinting through her long bangs, nostrils flared. Ida looked as she always looked, poised to unleash a mountain of rage.
After Joseph’s older brother Grover Ponce took his shift at the bell, he realized that it was time to prepare to play a variation of Cowboys and Indians with his friends. This variation meant that instead of chasing the Indians home, they would have a brawl. This variation was named Cowboys vs. Indians. This variation was different for multiple reasons. First, they would pick teams as normal. Next, they prepare to fight each other in the forest. Then, they would fight, and really fight – this was not just a game. Finally, the game would end whenever one side raised the white flag, or if one side is forced to forfeit. Why would they be forced to forfeit? Well, the Cowboys had rope, and you can’t raise a flag when you are tied up, much less fight. Or, the Indians had their countless chicken feathers. Maybe not countless, as Joseph only plucked a limited amount of chickens, but there were a lot. These feathers are good for poking and even puncturing skin, and fighting is a lot harder when you are trying not to get poked. What was the reward? To put it simply, they would be able to brag about it until school resumed. Joseph waved goodbye to his brother, and headed off to get ready.
First, he had to steal some feathers from the Stein’s chicken coop. He hopped into the backyard. He wasn’t too worried, because the only people home were Henry Stein, who was six years younger than him, and his nanny.
He walked into the chicken coop and was immediately greeted with clucking. Joseph had an entire procedure down: he would start with one chicken, pretending he was going to feed it and then when it was off balance, that was when he would strike. Wrestling the biting chicken to the ground, he would pluck off the top feathers. Then, he would nonchalantly put it back in its nest. Looking at all the other chickens, he stood there, calculating the amount of chickens he would have to pluck clean. According to his calculations, realistically all he had to do was pluck 19 chickens clean, a drastic improvement from needing to pluck the 58 chickens that resided in the coop. He knew that this would get a lot of attention, but it was not illegal. Why would anyone want the feathers anyway? In fact, he was probably doing the Steins a favor by plucking off some of the feathers so that they wouldn’t have to.
As Joseph exited the coop, he heard a young boy scream, “Hey, you!” This boy was of course, Henry. Joseph didn’t feel like dealing with Henry after dealing with 19 chickens, so he spun around, put on a mean face, and charged at him, with the woven basket holding the incriminating evidence in his left hand. Henry took one look at it and ran back inside, bawling and screaming, “You are a really, really, really, big meanie!” Joseph shrugged it off, grabbed his feathers and headed off to the forest.
The boys had decided to meet up on a hill overlooking the Hudson and to play the game in the forest surrounding the hill. The bright, midday sun shone down on the ground below, making it nearly impossible to look up. Joseph started by walking down Ralph Street, and quickly turned right to North Avenue. Joseph stared into the woods, his eyes tracing the road all the way up to the dirt path that forked up and into it. He looked down at the feathers in his basket, smiled, and headed down the road. He was ready to have fun, after he had done his part. Edward Kemp was to bring the rope, as he was the most experienced at handling rope. James O’Neill was to bring the white flag because he had one laying around.
Entering the woods, Joseph was immediately greeted by activity in a bird’s nest, a mama bird struggling to feed a worm to its chicks. He walked by and jumped over a stream, and there was the hill that looked like a bald spot compared to the surrounding forest.The rest of the boys showed up, and picked teams. A few players stood out, like Thomas Meyer. Thomas Meyer was an athlete. He was athletic, healthy, and muscular; the perfect type of person to give someone a beatdown. However, the Cowboy captain, William McLean was a complete idiot and did not pick Thomas, but picked Joseph, still a decent pick. James, the Indians captain, had a confused look on his face.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“What, do you want me to take that back?” William snapped back.
“No, it is fine. And I will pick Thomas.”
As Thomas walked over toward the Indians side, James whispered to him, “William is stupid.” William decided that now it was time to get solid picks, and picked people like Edward. However, it seemed as though the Indians had the better team, but the Cowboys didn’t worry. They had a rope, which was why William picked people like Edward in the first place. The Cowboys side also had healthier people who were well fed, unlike some people who live off of potatoes.At work, Joseph’s dad’s colleagues would bet on certain things, like which anvil will break (he was a blacksmith). They would end up wagering enough money to buy certain things, like chicken legs for everybody. For example, Joseph’s dad always brought home meat, the family favorite being chicken legs.
The Cowboys gathered and decided on a plan. They would leave Edward to walk around with the rope, and tie up the Indians when one of them would get knocked down. However, before they got started, Ida Rogers showed up. “Hey, what’s that girl doing here?” William asked.
“What about me being a girl?” Ida retorted.
William challenged Ida, and of course he lost. Thomas, feeling bored, immediately clobbered Edward right on the head when the game started, and then things just started going downhill. The Indians quickly subdued the Cowboys by punching them in the face, dealing blows that left bumps that reminded Joseph of when he had mumps, and then tied them to trees.
Joseph watched as his comrades got slapped in the face, slamming the back of their heads against the trees they were tied to. He immediately started to backpedal away from his enemies, still trying to tie him up. He ran for the white flag and raised it in surrender. Joseph felt extremely humiliated, mortified even. Oh, sweet revenge.
All the boys looked around the forest, and looked at their bruises. Some of the boys were black and blue, and a few of them were bleeding from the thorns. Joseph watched as his comrades staggered away, wincing at the pain.
When he got home, his brother Grover wanted to show him and Frank something. He was wearing the same clothes as Frank and Joseph were, but his shoes were clean. He led them into a room and sitting on the table was a hunting rifle. Frank began frantically hopping about and asked, “How did you get that in here?”
“It’s from a favor I got. They want me to hunt some beavers.”
“There are beavers around here? When?” Joseph inquired.
“Two days ago, a bunch of people noticed that they decided to build a dam and flood a bunch of land to live in,” Grover informed, “It would be a catastrophe for the town officials if they would have to evacuate the town because of beavers, and I want you two to come with me.”
The boys went to eat their hearty meal of chicken legs and spinach for dinner and they saw their parents. “Look at this man! He’s making money!” Their dad exclaimed, pointing at Grover. Both of his parents hugged Grover. Joseph sat up after quickly eating dinner because he couldn’t stand listening to his parents that were in awe of Grover, and went to bed.
The next day, the three brothers went through the woods and out the other side. The three huddled in a bush near the dam-in-progress. Grover put the telescopic sight on the rifle, and laid down on his stomach with his left eye closed, and his right eye aiming down the sight. He motioned for Joseph to use the binoculars to try and spot any sign of the beavers, and Frank just continued to breathe quietly. They sat patiently until Joseph piped up, “Why aren’t they here yet?”
“Probably gathering materials for the dam,” Grover replied.
“Joseph, you haven’t seen anything?” Frank asked over his shoulder. Joseph shook his head, and Frank huffed a puff of air and began eating his sandwich. They sat there, so focused on the task that they did not notice the growling gray wolf expertly stalking the beavers on the other side of the Hudson. And then they heard a loud splash, and saw a beaver swimming toward a mound of mud and sticks. Grover punched the ground beneath him angrily. “They got scared,” Grover explained to his little brothers.
“Was it that wolf over there?” Joseph asked, pointing to a gray wolf. Grover fired the rifle, and the wolf dropped dead and into the water.
“Why don’t we try and break into that dirt mound?” Frank wondered.
The boys marched over to the dirt mound, and Grover stomped on it. It was a lodge, and it was extremely sturdy. Grover motioned for the little brothers to step back, and then he fired. A wail came from the inside of the lodge, and a growl came from behind the boys. “Bear, bear, bear!” the boys cried in unison as they ran up the hill towards home. Joseph looked over his shoulder to see if the bear was close, but it wasn’t a bear, it was Henry Stein. “I got you three good, didn’t I?” Henry asked, laughing. Right when Grover was about to raise his gun to silence the child, a much louder, fiercer, growl was heard. The boys turned to see a mama black bear and ran. The boys ran until Henry pointed at a valley, and they slid down the valley. . Joseph, however, ran up to the other side of the valley. The mama bear tried to jump for Joseph, but missed. Crack, whine, thump, dead bear.
In the midst of the nuclear arms race, I, Joseph Ponce, cannot stop but yearn for those fun times I had in the summer of 1888. I have moved away from Beacon, New York and I have moved to New York City. Although the city is where the jobs were at, I wonder if the sense of financial security was worth it. Children don’t play in the city, and now as a retired grandfather, I can’t do anything but talk about childhood in Beacon. Of course, Beacon is now a suburban area so taking my grandchildren there would mean nothing. The world changes so fast.