The Three Amigos: Pranksters

This is another story of the three amigos. As I mentioned in the previous post, when I was in first grade my parents allowed me to walk to school with my two best friends (when I lived in China). It was a good 2 miles away if I remember correctly and on the way, there was so much to do...

One thing we did almost every day was deflate the tires of bicycles. In China, the main source of transportation for most middle class citizens was bikes. There were bike racks everywhere and people would ride to work, lock it up and go to work. My dad had a bike and even built a baby seat in the back so I could ride with him when I was young. So on our way to school we would sneak up to these bikes, unscrew the caps on the tire nozzles, wait till the tire was totally deflated and threw away the cap. Thinking back, we were really bad kids. We probably ruined a lot of people's days but I can't help but laugh at myself. We were so good at it we never got caught and numerous commuters walked home with a flat tire not knowing who did it.

But this was not enough. We needed more excitement and stimulation so we started spitting on car windows that were parked on the sidewalks. Even though this is disgusting and terrible we felt justified in doing it. Anyone who owned a car in China walked around like their shit doesn't stink; with their heads held up high as if they was better than everyone else. And they parked on the sidewalks where people walked. So we spit on the windshields and the mirrors of fancy Audis and Hondas, and ran away as fast as we can. This quickly became boring. Unimpressed with ourselves we moved on to bigger things.

So we began messing with drivers at red lights. One time we found a jug of water laying in the trash pile and we used it to cause some trouble. At a red light we took the jug and placed it in front of a taxi driver's front wheel. We tried to be sneaky but the driver saw us, came out and screamed at the top of his lungs. He called us stupid kids and some other unpleasant things. We knew he couldn't come after us because his car is stopped at a traffic light so we hung around at a comfortable distance taunting him. The dude was so red he had not idea what to do, but the light turned green so he got back in and drove off. We cheered at the victory and mocked the driver on our way back home.

As Charlie Sheen would put it: Winning. But thinking back, we were terribly stupid kids who knew no bounds. I would hate to unlock my bike to ride to school only to find that my tire is flat because some stupid kids thought it was funny (it was HILARIOUS at the time). So the question that remains: do I regret doing those things? The answer is an emphatic NO. If I had the chance I would still do it today but the consequences are more severe for a 20 year old. I'm still a kid at heart-growing up sucks.