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 Adam Ritchie and his band inside the DMZSteve Schmidt and Link Smith skating in DMZ parking lotSteve Schmidt, somewhere between the heights and downtownGrove Circle Punx - Andy Conrad, Utrillo, Bryan Spinas, Matthew Thompson, Jason White, Josh Bentley (92)
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Allsopp riots  // The emancipated 17 year old girl who was "cited" that day was me (see news article below). The citation was for "verbally inciting a riot". I remember walking with Penelope on Kavanaugh to where the fight was supposed to be. We were there looking for Robert, Nick and Matthew - we wanted the low down on who had won. As we came upon the scene, we saw cops everywhere - and a shit load of people sitting on the curb in cuffs. Penelope suggested that we might not want to get too close to a scene full of cops. Sounds like sound advice now, but at the time it sounded like crazy talk. Being the brazen girl that I was, I said "Fuck that - I want to know why all my fucking friends are being arrested." I should mention that in addition to being brazen I was also VERY LOUD. A cop who had been standing nearby heard me. He grabbed me and threw me across the cop car like a rag doll - then tossed me in the back of his car head first. He later claimed he was so rough with me because he had mistaken me ... (More)  John Pugh // Ah fuck, how the fuck did I get myself arrested? Well, it's a long story. Most of you were there. I'm pretty sure none of you were skinheads (though a few rotten apples may have "howling"), so you know it was a simple case of hot Southern summer tension mixing with mind-boggling boredom...the punks were bored, the skaters were bored, the preps were bored, the cops were bored, the "concerned citizens of hillcrest" were bored, the press was bored, the parents were bored/boring...so we all decided to give each other some distraction. I was so distracted, that I found myself tottering down Kavanaugh with an armful of baseball bats and chains, just as a Camaro full of undercover cops pulled over looking for "howling skinheads". Go figure. I spent the rest of the year on probation doing landscape work for a man named John Sutton. He gave me an eight-track player possessed by the Disco Ghost....but that's another story, my child. // Let Me tell you a little bit about this skinhead gang. It was bullshit, ill try to remember but Ive had enough speed and dilaudid to kill an elephant since then. By the way Im clean I dont even fukin smoke. Anyway I am going to try to remember the gang members by their tags, lets see donut, disco sly, molster, sledge, Nick, fluke, and all of the front yard pimps, chino, even einstein. Anyone remember him. Also anyone who was in HCP, 211, FYP. I watched the vid of allsop a long time ago with Ian chism, it had been set to the tune of NEUROSIS. Disco sly went After their vehicles, very cool. Someone close to me got into trouble. That made what we were doing very real. I hid in the woods with someone I cant remember if anyone does let me know. NEEDLESS TO SAY THE SKINS IN L.R. WAS BULLSHIT. But we did fuck a lot of shit up FSU. // I remember the ridiculous phone conversation I had with my mom when I was at nerd camp in Conway that summer: "Cory, John Pugh was caught running around in the park assaulting people with a baseball bat!" "Huh?" I think the cops chalked this up as the work of one of the mythological gangs that roamed the streets of Hillcrest. Law enforcement's theory was that the punks were either part of a satanist gang, a skinhead gang, or both. I remember the skinhead gang being a somewhat frequent topic of conversation at the Allsopp benches. Everyone wondered who these guys were because no one had seen any skinheads around town. One of the 12ft.6 guys had finally figured it out after a trip to the police precinct: "I think the skinhead gang is supposed to be us." // After that incident the city put up a anti-loitering sign and I think that was the last time that there were any accoustic shows by the Kavanaugh benches. Which was a shame as those shows were really fun. // I remember reading about this in the papers and of course I kept the article about it. It said that John Pugh with a bat in hand ran from some redneck dudes who turned out to be undercover cops. The papers also stated that the preps would throw beer bottles and other things at the punks. I also remember reading that a lot of people got arrested and that one person was charged with having a .45 caliber pistol with him. However when I read about this, it was surprising because everywhere you would go you would get fucked with by some redneck, jock or some fraternity douche bag (aka the white caps). But it was definitely something that had been boiling over for a long time and it just came to a head. But there were only a few times that any redneck or jock ever fucked with any punk after that. I also found it amusing how the paper brought in things about "skinheads and sharps." The papers even went as far to say that someone who had witnessed the fight say that someone from the punk side had yelled something like "Fuck you N*gger!" to someone from ... (More) // I was living abroad for my junior year in high school and was excited to come home in the summer of 93 and see all of my friends. I arrived a few days after the infamous Alsopp Park fight between the punks and the preps and the feeling around town was spooky. Everyone was tense, traveling in packs with an eye over their shoulder. I remember walking with my girlfriend when a car slows down next to us full of 5 guys in identical white fraternity hats and one asks "Were you at Alsopp?". Real dramatic, like they were talking about Altamont or Iwo Jima.
As I remember the telling: Mitchell Powers had been sitting at the benches when some Catholic High "preps" came by and called him queer or something. Mitch got into it with them and somehow a full-on rumble was scheduled for Friday night in Alsopp park (I love the "3 O'Clock High" idea of a scheduled fight). So 20 or 30 Catholic kids showed up and a bunch of punks. Apparently the punks kind of sat in the background and let the real crazies, the skaters, go to work. I think the Catholic kids had anticipated a ... (More) // Three punk kids sitting at the benches, along Kavanaugh Boulevard atop Allsop Park, were physically assaulted by a few Catholic High students. This sparked the unity between the punks and and the new breed of skaters, who generally didn't get along too well at the time. There was talk about a big fight at Allsop, on a certain date. I can remember showing up at the benches with Nick Castleberry, both with oil cans of beer in hand, and amazed by how many people showed up for this melee. There were at least 50 punks and skaters ready to fight the jocks. It was straight out of "The Outsiders," although most of us came from better homes than Ponyboy Curtis and gang. The mentality between the punks was completely different from that of the jocks at Catholic High, and that was obviously enough for an all-out brawl. So the punks and skaters were all at the top of the park and the jocks were waiting down at the bottom of the woods, by the baseball field. Nick and I found it all a bit amusing and were planning on only spectating. The anxiety was building and I announced, in a ... (More)  |
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12ft6
Allsopp Park
Cory Walker
