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Oral Histories of Some Former Lankville Pugilists

November 30, 2014 Leave a comment Go to comments
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By Victors Weese (1971-1978, 28W-16L, 14KO)

I was working nights at the bowling alley up off of 258. 258 used to be a major roadway and then they built 64 and you had to take this long-ass ramp to get down onto 258 and nobody wanted to do it. So, just about every business they had on 258 went out and, for some reason, they just bulldozed everything and put up these houses for all these god damn Chunkers* that came around and took over everything.

Anyway, I worked nights and was in charge of the counter. Served all kinds of food in there– Christ, that menu was like a beautiful, majestic food cornucopia. All that food to waste though cause people wouldn’t come down onto 258 like I was verbally illustrating before.

So anyway, one night some guys come in and they were all in suits. Seemed like they might have been gangsters but I don’t mean gangsters like them god damn Chunkers think they are, I mean real honest to goodness tough guys. And one of them came up and he said, “I won’t lie to you kid, I’ve got a real hard-on for something like a tube shape and maybe with some cheese and meat sprinkled on it. Think you can make that?” And I give it all I got and I come up with something just what he described and he watched me the whole time and then he took a bite and then he took it into the bathroom and when he come out, he didn’t have it no more but I didn’t say nothing. So, he come back up to the counter and he said, “Kid, I watched you make that tube thing back then and I gotta’ say, I mean it was good and all that shit but I was watchin’ your hands. You got good hands. Fast. Ever think about taking up boxing?”

Well, the next thing I know, I got me a manager. Clarence Sharp.

Clarence started me out in the juniors but I progressed pretty fast. My first big fight was in ’71 and that was against Curt Vogel. Curt was little but built like a barrel– I mean, just strong as some of those big women they got working at five-and-dimes. He beat me up pretty good– knocked me out in the 7th. I just couldn’t stay up.

Well, I figured on Clarence maybe dropping me then but he said it was alright. “Everybody takes their lumps,” he said. He tried some kind of parable but it didn’t hold any water, couldn’t make it stick and he knew it. We spent the rest of the evening watching something fuzzy on TV.

Next up, it was Keith Belliard. I knocked him out in the first round– he tried to bend down and pick up a pencil that had fallen out of his ear and I just went to work on the back of his head and his neck. I don’t know whatever became of Keith after that. I think maybe they’d take him out occasionally. Some girls, you know, community service, that kind of shit.

Well, I had a decent career. Look, I don’t wanna’ take up too much of your time. Clarence, he died in ’98. I used to drive up to the country and see him. He had a house by a graveyard. We’d sit out on the patio and he’d look at the graveyard and try to say something profound but it never did hold any water. I’d bring him up one of those tube meat things and he’d thank me and take it in the bathroom. I never did see them after he came back out.

I got a little place now. Nothing much– four tables, little counter. [The interviewer made fun of Weese’s lousy establishment]. Yeah, I know it. It’s alright though.

*Derogatory term for people hailing from the Chunk Islands.

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