Another Billy Story

Billy and I used to do a lot of midnight stalking in various places and one summer night we went into the abandoned Odd Fellows hall above my Dad's old grocery store. We found a huge banner (maybe 20' long) that said "Los Gatos". We saved it for the Thursday night before the game with Saratoga. Keep in mind that neither of us were football fans at all. We assumed that we were both hated by the football coaches (and by many of the players) for being sissy slackers.

We drove over to Saratoga High very late, somehow scaled the walls of the gym and hung the banner over the side facing the parking lot. This probably had more to do with Billy’s and my very serious interest in the much more exotic girls of Saratoga. The next morning I was called out of class and told to report to Vice Principal Matheny's office. As I rounded the corner Billy was coming toward me. We looked at each other and we both have the "Oh f#*%k! We've been caught..." look. We were escorted into the office, told to sit down, and given that "Matheny stare".

Matheny then proceeded to tell us that an "informant" has told him that we plan some prank at Saratoga High that evening and that if that were, in fact, true, we had best change our minds. We looked at each other, returned our gaze to Matheny and assured him that we had no plans to do any such thing THAT evening. Which was 100% true! We never heard another word. I still want to know who the snitch was. Does anybody out there know???

It was pure joy for Billy and me at the time.

Daniel Smith, July 2004