BILL CADY Word Count: 149,227 - At My Friend's Place

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 40
It had a huge yard, about half an acre. The big white house was in need of some
repair, but didn‟t start looking too shabby until I was in my teens. A welfare family lived
there for a year or so. The father‟s name was Merle Cobb, an utterly despicable asshole.
They‟d sit on the front porch at night, spring, summer and early fall, drinking beer. They
slept very late, but still had plenty of time to get shitfaced before the average workday
ended.
They had nine kids, which I found appalling. Remember, I wasn‟t all that crazy
about kids even when I was one. Their oldest boy was a kid named Bob Cobb. He was
three or four years older than me, a foot taller, maybe thirty pounds heavier. He even
wore a black leather jacket, the symbol at that time of a “hood”. That‟s what we called
the really bad kids.
I didn‟t like him much, but we had very little contact. He was allegedly one of
the “tough guys” at C. W. Otto junior high school, grades seven to nine.
His sister was my age. Kind of pretty. I‟m not positive about her name. I think it
was Connie, but I‟m not sure. However, after those hormone treatments, equipped with
what my uncle termed “a full set of balls”, I was finding a new interest in girls.
One summer evening Merle noticed my Mom pointing at them as they got even
drunker on their front porch. It pissed him off. Already a bit sloppy, he started yelling
abusive words across the street. It went on a while until my folks decided it was better to
go inside their overheated house than sit on the porch and listen to his bullshit. After that
night, Cobb never let up. He‟d begin his diatribe every time they sat on the front porch.
It got old in a hurry.
One afternoon, I was in their yard talking with Connie. Uncertain how I felt those
Leviticus, Limited 33-0505963