BRAD STROUF

My first memories of Brad are from 6th grade - before he even went to school with us. I believe Brad went to another school, then join us at Clarke for 7th grade.

In 6th grade, I used to walk home with Greg Flemal. Greg was one of my few calm, non-rowdy friends. So there wasn't much troublemaking going on. He didn't have it in him. I lived about two blocks from school. He and I were walking west down 45th street, on the way to my house. Up in front of us was a kid who looked to be about our age. I think we laughed and poked fun at him a bit, as kids do. We thought he was out of earshot. But he did turn back at one point. I believe I then shouted, "What are you looking at?" He sheepishly ignored us and kept going. Of course THEN we poured it on thick. I don't recall what was all said. But a few houses later, he turned to the right and walked up on the grass.

Who was this kid? It was Brad Strouf. And he lived in my neighborhood! He was literally across the street, two houses down from me. I'd lived there for over two years, and had no clue that a kid my age was living there. I'd never seen him before. I don't think anyone had.

Well, Brad's mom happened to be outside, on the front porch. And she saw that we were giving her son a hard time. She lit into us big time. Greg wasn't the confrontational type. He said nothing. But I wasn't about to take any shit from this woman. She actually had the gaul to tell me that I wasn't allowed to walk on her side of the street anymore. AS IF! Truth be told, I had usually crossed the street by that time. But from that day forward, I made a point to always walk in front of her house before crossing. The two of us screamed back and forth at each other for awhile, as I kept walking towards my home. For the life of me, I don't remember what she all said. But I do know that she said something which I deemed to be threatening. So when I got home, I decided to call the cops on her.

Note to any who may be reading this. If you're a troublemaker, have a bad reputation, and have had lots of police involvement in your life, never call the police on something as petty as this.

It was quite common to see a police officer in front of my home. This time, I called them. The cop took my story, then walked over to the Strouf's home. Awhile later, the cop came back. By this time, my mom had come home from work. The cop chewed me out. Mrs. Strouf told him that I had made some sort of references to oral sex when I was talking to Brad. THIS WAS NOT TRUE! I never said anything like that! It was quite embarrassing to have him say this stuff in front of my mom. Then to top it off, the cop says that he's known Mrs. Strouf for a long time, and that she doesn't think she would ever say anything threatening to me.

Great. I call the cops. And I get in trouble. Needless to say, I was very, VERY pissed off at this situation. My anger was directed towards Mrs. Strouf. I walked by her home everyday, even though Greg wimped out and walked on the other side of the street. She would watch and glare at me. But I wasn't satisfied. I wanted to do something to get back at her. But what?

What I did next become a small, underground legend. One night, I went outside with a newspaper, spread a few pages out, and took a dump on it. I then carried it (wrapped in the paper) over to the Strouf's house, unfolded it, and plopped the offending blackness onto their front porch. To be even more disgusting, I used the newspaper to flatten it and spread it around. When I was satisfied that I'd made an effective statement, I went home.

After school the next day, my phone rang. It was Mrs. Strouf. She was quiet and reserved, in addition to very apologetic. She said things like, "I don't like this. We're neighbors. We should be friends..." She never once accused me of doing anything. But clearly, she knew. I wasn't exactly kind to her on the phone. I just had short, biting answers. I was in a defensive mode. But she said her peace. When I hung up, I proudly said to myself, "I won!"

A few weeks later, I somehow found myself locked out of my house. I had to wait until my mom came home from work. At one point, I decided to climb a tree in my neighbor's yard. The tree actually was growing over our garage. So I had a clear view of the driveway when Brad, his little sister, and some older kid came around. Brad had brought a friend to come beat me up or something. They wandered around the backyard, and peered into the garage (a clubhouse-type hangout). Brad wanted to try to get into the garage. But his sister warned him that she would tell their mom if he did. I was in plain sight the whole time. All any of them had to do was make one glance up. But defeated, they went home.

My next memory of Brad is from 7th or 8th grade. He apparently had said something to Scott Stephens that pissed him off. And Scott attacked him after school. Scott wanted to fight. Brad refused. Scott fought anyway. I distinctly remember Scott on top of Brad, repeatedly ramming his face into the ground.

In 8th grade, Brad was friends with Mike Zeman - an odd pairing, if you ask me. The two of them sat near us during lunch. And they would make an incredible mess every single day - crumbs, wrappers, bags... Mike lived a long way away. But I remember at least once, Mike and Brad walking to school together. Did Mike walk all that way? Or was he dropped off? Who knows.

I got to know Brad a bit in junior year. We shared Ms. Sapa's creative writing class. I found Brad to be quite nice actually. He was good-natured, and was always having fun. We got along pretty good. We even talked about the incidents from years earlier. He held no grudges. He said he didn't remember the incident involving the older kid that he'd brought over years earlier.

I believe Brad hung around with Mark Ciha in our later highschool days. Brad also gave me a ride home on several occasions. He had this little blue car. (A Chevette?)

Chris Staudinger allegedly told Scott Jaklin that he stumbled upon Brad, almost stepping on him, while Brad was having sex with someone on the beach - I believe in some trees or shrubs. According to Chris, they never even knew he was there. I don't know this for sure. But the girl may have possibly been fellow graduate Kelly Siudzinski. Obviously I don't know if any of this is true.

During our junior year, whenever Richard and I stopped at Mr. Donut in Manitowoc, we would always save one donut for Brad. We made a habit of dropping the box off on his front porch at the end of the night. (It sure beats a turd). I believe Brad told us that he sometimes ate it.

I believe sometime in our junior year, "The Lost Boys" was playing at the Mikadow in Manitowoc. This is odd, since the movie's release was the summer of 1987. But nonetheless, it was playing. Anyway, I was with Dave Svatek and Richard Wheeler. I happened to have some rosary beads on me. Dave's sister Kelly had given it to me for some reason. So I started wearing it. Not being catholic, I didn't understand the ramifications of wearing such a thing around my neck. Dave eventually explained to me why it was that I got so many dirty looks when I'd wear it in public. Of course I wore it even more then. Anyway, I was wearing them while we stood in line for tickets. The place was packed. Brad Strouf and some of his friends were behind us in line. He saw the beads and asked why I was wearing them. He looked slightly irritated, but didn't act too offended. I don't recall what my answer was. Something tells me Chris Staudinger was there too. I seem to recall him sitting right behind me in the theater.

I ran into Brad a few times at the video store. He was always nice and friendly. I actually ran into his mother many times over the years. When she first found out that I was working at the video store, she warned my boss about me. My boss said that he took more of a "Don't tell me how to run my business" approach. Although he just laughed it off in front of her. But believe it or not, Mrs. Strouf and I ended up getting along quite well with one another. She came to realize that I had grown up, and had grown out of that asshole mode from my childhood.

Brad became a police officer. Rumor has it that he actually pulled his mother over for speeding. I'm sure she got off with a warning.

The last I'd heard, Brad had married and had two kids. Unfortunately they divorced. I believe he's now living in the Green Bay area.

UPDATE - 2/9/06 - Brad has confirmed that the alleged incident with Kelly Siudzinski never happened. Damn you Dave Svatek for telling me that! The non-event actually took place at a time when Brad was devoted to class of 1987's Kim Kohls. In fact, the "girl on the beach" appears to in fact be Kim. Speaking of Kim, I witnessed a little tiff she and had Brad outside the community house one night. I asked Brad about it the next day, in Sapa's class. But he wasn't in the mood to discuss it.

UPDATE - 2/15/06 - Brad has provided a two-year-old photo of himself, in uniform. Save for the moustache (which apparently has since been shaved) he looks exactly the same. Thank you Brad.



UPDATE - 8/10/06 - Brad has provided a new photo of himself. I believe it was taken earlier today. This is Brad with three days of scruff, after having a few days off from work.



UPDATE - 2/1/08 - A not-so-scruffy-looking Brad got cleaned up from the time the last photo was taken, and went and got married in Antigua. The evidence is below.