It's snowing outside. Light, white. Everything feels very clean in Lake Forest. I was sitting at the table with my family and we were sipping some Grand Mariner and started talking about old times - growing up in this town. High school was trying for me in a lot of ways. I used to hang with this group of guys, an irreplaceable group of guys. Let me run with this one a little bit...
Lake Forest High School football sucks. Terrible. We never really competed for anything - never made much of a splash in the conference - rarely made the state playoffs. We were a town that bred tall, big armed throwers and ran the option, year after year with backfields full of slow white kids. Anyway, once every 20 or so years, fates would line up and we would somehow field a trio of runners that could compete and go down state. I'm 28 years old - we had 1 team in all of my memory that put it together...and guess what, I can still remember the 3 kids' names from the backfield: Klapper, Comstock, Boeder. They were amazing. I only mention them because me and my friends were like that - that lining of such destined talent. Only our talent fell in different fields...like drinking, fighting, vandalism (allegedly), theft, grand theft (allegedly)...honestly, I could go as far as the imagination could roll. We were like that, terrible youth or so the authorities liked to believe. Actually, we were not very well behaved, I won't pretend otherwise. At some point during our sophomore year, after the state of Illinois allowed us to drive cars, the entire high school population and their parents started calling us this awful name that will be mentioned later in this post...and then it stuck. Comedy. A lot of people come out of high school and tell stories of their glory days and of the hell they used to raise and I just listen and nod and say things like wow that's amazing you guys were hard. I have nothing to say.
When dessert came out, I mentioned something about LakeForester archives, grabbed my Mac, paid 3 bucks and took a little trip down memory lane. Oh baby did this throw some hell into my life, and then so too the felony charges that would soon follow...
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Six charged with mob action
DANIEL I. DORFMAN STAFF WRITER
Published: February 24, 2000
Six area teen-agers were arrested and charged with mob action among other crimes Feb. 13 after police say they instigated a fight at an unsupervised party. According to Lake Forest Police Commander Patricia Lord, at approximately 4 a.m., the six suspects attempted to gain access to a party on the 200 block of East Vine in Lake Forest.
A front window to the home was broken, leading to some fighting. A Lake Forest police officer was in the area when he heard the glass brake and began to investigate.
"They knowingly got together to do an unlawful act which in this case was criminal trespass to residence," Lord said.
Matthew T. Krawiec, 18, 284 Granby Road, Lake Forest was charged with one count of criminal trespass to residence, three counts of battery, one count of mob action and one count of criminal damage to property. His bond was set at $15,000. Krawiec was arrested in January for breaking a window at another unsupervised party.
Gary L. Jester, 17, 12533 W. Meadow Circle, Lake Bluff, was charged with one count of criminal trespass to residence and one count of mob action. He posted $500 as bond and has a scheduled court date of March 6.
Patrick J. McConachie, 17, 701 Sheffield Court, Lake Forest was charged with criminal trespass to residence, one count of battery, and one count of mob action. He posted a $1,000 bond and has a scheduled court date of March 6.
Michael T. Hutchen, 18, 971 Coventry, Lake Forest, Reilly Smith, 18, 185 Washington Circle, Lake Forest, Austin C. Smith, 17, 883 N. McKinley Road, Lake Forest, were all charged with one count of criminal trespass to residence and one count of mob action. All posted $500, and have a scheduled court date of March 6.
Frat Boys
The six suspects are believed to have ties to a group known as "The Frat Boys." That group has been linked to at least one act of vandalism.
"The gentlemen arrested are part of a group which is self-described as the Frat Boys," Lord said.
The words Frat Boys were painted on mural designed by a Lake Forest High School student across the street from the Gorton Center on Illinois Road.
Lake Forest High School Principal Marilyn Howell conceded school officials are aware of the "Frat Boys." Describing them as elusive.
"We have some idea who belongs, but we are not sure who belongs each week." Howell said Tuesday.
She added this is not the first time problems of this type have emerged.
"Senior boys will emerge with a group with a catch name and they are accused of doing acts that are not appropriate to the school or the community."
Howell would not comment if "The Frat Boys" have been under suspicion for other acts inside the school.
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Ten years later, the machine and everyone in it above are still such a joke to me. These were "adults" handling us "children." We the "evil" element of this pristine North Shore town. Comedy, comedy...all of it comedy. I would love to sit down again with these people, all of these people who sat me down and have a face to face about their lives today, about all of the judgements they laid upon me, about the "guidance" they were giving me - these people inside this small high school and in this small town, trying to "teach" me about life and what movements within it should be deemed appropriate and not. Unbelievable.
Someone sent the article to my soon to be college baseball coach at Illinois. They were on a road trip to Michigan State and he stood up and read it out loud to the team before a game. They told me I couldn't play baseball, that they were going to take away my scholarship. They told me a lot of things. I thought about running away - I thought about a lot of things. Growth. We hired a good lawyer and everything of mine got thrown out. A couple of my friends didn't talk to me for a week - thought I cut some sort of deal with the prosecutor. Things were never the same between us. That was tough. I like to think it made me tough.
I like to believe a lot of the things that happened from my 15-18 made a great deal of the man I am today.
Right now, well, I don't keep up with anything and am a selfish cockface so I have no idea what anyone is really up to. When I'm home, I do what I can to change that. Maybe tomorrow. These boys are in my blood - them and the handful who didn't appear in publication for this particular happening - who made up the 50 some compiled arrests over those 4 years. I wonder what's bendin' their lives. I wonder how they're moving...
