When I was a kid, the bully
in Philo was named Vic Dodge. I don't
know if he was a bully for all of Philo, or just for the part north of the
tracks where we lived. And he was
probably more than a bully. I think he
was a real criminal. I was too young to
have a good idea of how old he was, but I did know that he had long hair and
that even my oldest brothers had strict instructions to steer clear of
him. He had 2 younger brothers (one of
them was named David) and, as a group, they were just called "The Dodge
Boys". Mom always warned us
"If you see the Dodge Boys coming, you turn your bike around and come
home."
Or, if worse came to worse, and we had to get away from him fast,
we could go to one of the houses in town that had a blue star taped to their front
window. I don't know what those stars
meant, but I guess they were some kind of code for "This Is A Vic Dodge
Free Zone" or something.
Anyway, back in 1981, Vic Dodge was found dead in
Scott Park in Champaign. I heard that
his penis was cut off and stuck in his mouth too. He probably deserved it.
