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

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 86
Great. I can establish a “rep” at this school, which will keep me from getting my
ass kicked regularly. All I need to do is take as many as three chances where I might not
only get whipped, I might be stomped senseless. Mom! Damn it, Mom! Now what?
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Since I mentioned it in my last story, then brought it up again here, I guess I
should tell you about the time Stevie Wonder was given the opportunity to meet Bill
Cady. Stevie attended the Michigan School for the Blind, (MSB). The campus is, or
was when I lived there, mammoth. Best guess, a hundred acres, maybe more. It‟s almost
twice the size of Comstock park, situated next to it, on the north. It had a manse on the
side facing Pine Street where the dean, Dr. Thompson, and his family resided. Dr.
Thompson‟s only child, Bobby, was in my grade and went to Otto when I did.
We used to cut through the MSB campus to get to the park when we went ice
skating. Even played in the park during the warmer months. The MSB grounds were so
huge the school marching band would practice and I‟d find times I could no longer hear
them because they walked out of range.
Bobby was an okay guy. He thought, and acted, as if he was a lot more popular
than was true, but who the hell could blame him? He suffered from the same anxieties as
the rest of us. You never dared look or appear anything other than cool, or you were a
dipshit. Nobody, including me, wanted to be a dipshit.
My calendar, since I was in ninth grade, tells me it was in 1963 when Stevie was
able to meet me. (You‟ll notice the insecurity cover up when I explain he was able to
meet me, not vice versa). I was slowly becoming friends with some of the kids at Otto,
including Bob Chouinard, Gilbert Puente, Bobby Thompson, Buddy Frahm, Jerry Fatura,
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