Turo Appleseed

By Alpha

The unknown story of Turo Appleseed is an unforgettable true story of the real-life "Johnny Appleseed" of the social revolution. Starting in his early teen years as a "little traveso" (Spanish word that means "little badass") with a motley crew of equally crazy friends down a path of alcohol, drugs, women, and crime! These factors all culminating together on a cool October night in 1997 for Turo Appleseed when he became the world's first person to engage in wireless, handheld socializing at the parties! Always into something, Turo Appleseed's socializing was too much to be contained in a garage or college dorm room! Take a trip back to the nineties through the early part of the new millennium to when it all began. If you want the complete true story of who started the whole wireless, handheld socializing fad that has become a way of life around the world, then Turo Appleseed is a must read!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662486944

Alpha

Alpha started more than thirty years ago at Holy Trinity Brompton, an Anglican church in Central London, UK. It was originally developed as a short course for people in the church. In 1990, Nicky Gumbel took over running Alpha and found that many people outside of the church were warming up to the idea of Alpha. Today, Alpha runs in every part of the worldwide church.

Book preview

cover.jpg

Turo Appleseed

Alpha

Copyright © 2022 Alpha

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-6624-8693-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-8694-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Eighth Grade

Ninth grade

Tenth Grade

Junior Year

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Conclusion

About the Author

Eighth Grade

The following historical account detailing the origin story of how a wireless, handheld socializing fad that would spread the seeds from which the social revolution would sprout forth and become part of life the world over is true, only the names have been altered to protect the guilty. Told to you by the one who did the damn thing, the youngest of three children, born with an eternal poker face, the kind that made most men nervous. With a walk that caught the attention of more than a few women, different from his friends, not friends with his peers, a misfit. One part James Bond, one part Cheech and Chong! A left­handed original, but for you to pick up what I'm about to lay down, I have to start from the beginning.

That would be late 1992. I was in eighth grade in junior high, and I was waiting in line at the student store to buy something to snack on during recess with my friend, Litos. While I was standing in line, I noticed the student who ran the store was high, flashing his set of keys to the school. I don't know why or how different my life would have been had I not, but the thought of stealing his keys so we could rob the school entered my mind.

I turned to my homeboy Litos and said, Ey, foo, let's steal his keys so we can rob the school.

Litos looked at me for a second, thinking about it, before he said, Okay, but how?

I'll distract him, and when he's not looking, you can swipe his keys.

Litos agreed. So when it was my turn in line to order, I kept asking for the price of different items against the back wall to distract him, so he would have to keep turning around and around. With his back turned, Litos managed to swipe the keys he had left on the counter and fade back into the crowd. I bought the cheapest thing they had and started looking for Litos. When we met back up, he told me he got it, and with all the joy of first-time parents, we rushed to tell our homeboy, Rico, and my cousin, Sticky Fingers. That was our crew. That day over a lunch of fish sticks, tater tots, and milk boxes, we planned our first robbery.

All of us came from lower middle-class families, and though we had the basics, we wanted more. Litos didn't live far from the school, so we all agreed to meet up at his place after seven when it was dark.

That day when school let out, I searched for my girlfriend, Iris, to walk her home like usual. We had been together for a few weeks, and I really liked her and was eager to brag about stealing the key. However, Iris wasn't waiting where she usually waited for me, so I walked around searching for her. I was walking outside of the school when I spotted her from across the street. As I picked up the pace to catch up to her, I saw her walking up to another guy, who was much older, a senior in high school. I watched from across the street as they embraced each other and started kissing! I was hurt and didn't understand what was going on as my heart was breaking. Seeing her kiss another guy told me all she hadn't. I thought of going over there to start a fight, but he was older, bigger, taller, and surrounded by his homeboys. Besides, Iris had made her choice, so I turned around to walk home alone as she walked off with him. Walking home that day with a broken heart, I felt as lonely as the man on the moon.

After I got home, I couldn't concentrate with that image of Iris kissing another guy burned into my mind. Desperate, I called Iris, hoping somehow it was all a mistake, but it wasn't. When I told her that I had seen her kissing another guy after school, she hung up on me! I felt like a fool! That's when for the first time I felt as if my shadow had come to life.

It was my Gemini, and he began talking to me, saying, I know it hurts right now, but this pain we feel will pass while making us stronger.

I nodded my head in agreement, encouraged by those words but still heartbroken inside.

However, there was no time to feel sorry for myself because later that night, we all met up at Litos' place like we had planned at lunch to rob the school. As we met up, we all greeted each other with a handshake, and I could sense the jitters in the air because this was a step up from the beer and cigarette runs we were used to pulling. Lucky for us, we couldn't have picked a better night because the fog rolled in thick and early that evening.

As we left Litos' place, each of us with our knapsacks in hand as if we were going trick-or-treating, we sparked up a joint, and it helped take the edge off. We started joking around like we were just walking to school together like we do every day, but that all changed once we got within sight of the school. We all paused there across the street from the school that was shrouded in misty fog, realizing that this was the point of no return. Once we crossed the street, there was no going back. We all looked around at each other as if to reassure one another that we had each other's back.

Midway across the street, we picked up the pace and started jogging toward the ten-foot-perimeter fence. I spotted an opening in the fence I could squeeze through while Rico, Litos, and Sticky Fingers climbed over the fence. Once over the fence, fueled by the adrenaline rush, we sprinted across the football field like we were trying out for the team! While running toward the student store, I felt a degree of control over my body that I had never experienced before, like my senses were in complete unison with my mind. It was the adrenaline; it was my first taste of it, and I liked it!

When we got to the front door of the student store, Rico fumbled around with the keys in the dark for a couple of seconds before getting the door open with the stolen key. Once we got the door opened, we rushed through the doorway like water onto the Titanic. Litos turned on a small flashlight he had brought from home, and once he turned it on, there it was—boxes and boxes of Snickers, Twix, Starburst, Skittles, chips, and more! Things that were a luxury for us were now right there for our taking. We were literally kids in a candy store. We started filling up our sacks with as much stolen booty as fast as we could.

After our sacks were full, we sprinted back across the football field, lugging our stuffed sacks back to the fence. However, instead of jumping over the fence adjacent to the main street as we did jumping in, we ran toward the east side of the school that was adjacent to a residential side street to jump out. Again, I spotted an opening in the fence to squeeze through while Rico, Litos, and Sticky Fingers climbed over. Midway through the fence, I spotted a cop car rolling down the street, coming straight for us! I quietly yelled, Cop! And like a couple of crash test dummies, we froze into position, them on the fence and me halfway through the fence, hoping the foggy night would save us! It worked! The cop car continued to roll on to the intersection and then out of sight. We unfroze and got over the fence and, once again, started sprinting toward the alley across the street. We kept to the alleyways the rest of the way back to Litos' place

Back at Litos' place, we examined our haul.

Litos exclaimed with glee, Fuck trick-or-treating, this is my Halloween!

We all had a good laugh.

Me and my cousin Sticky Fingers couldn't stay long, so we packed up our haul and headed for home. Me and my cousin decided to store the stolen goods in the trunk of a car that was rusting out in his backyard.

The next day at school, I was nervous and unsure what to expect. Would the school know who did it? Would they say anything? Not to mention having to see Iris after seeing her cheat on me the day before! However, as the morning turned to midday, it was business as usual at school. The school didn't say anything, and I kept my distance from Iris.

The school day ended without incidence, mostly to my relief, but I was a little perturbed that I couldn't brag about or even take kudos for successfully thinking, planning, and executing a robbery of this magnitude while still being in junior high!

Over the coming weeks, we would hit the school a few more times, each time becoming better, faster, and more efficient at it. We were no longer stuffing knapsacks with individual candy bars; we were going straight for the unopened boxes and placing them neatly into our duffel bags. Each time, closing the door and locking it in an attempt to keep them guessing.

With all the efficient robberies we were pulling, we encountered a problem—what to do with all the stolen goods! By now, we were all sick of candy and didn't know what to do with it all. It would be Rico that solved that problem. One day while hanging out after school, Rico treated us to lunch at 7-Eleven, nachos. When I saw him pull out a twenty to pay, I knew something was up.

So once we got outside the store, I asked him, Hey, bitch, what's up? How do you got all this money?

I sold a couple of unopened boxes to Mitch at El Perlo Market.

Part of me was jealous, but part of me realized a good idea is a good idea regardless of who thought of it, so of course, I wanted to start hustling too! Since I didn't know any Kwik-E-Mart owners whose store was two blocks away like Rico did, I teamed up with Litos, and we started hustling our stolen goods door to door.

We never hustled in our neighborhoods or near the school, and we made up a story that we were fundraising for our church. One night after letting Litos do the talking and getting nowhere, I took control of the little wagon we were using to haul around our unopened boxes of candy we had for sale. I spotted a very nice house and was able to convince the lady of the house to buy all six boxes we had for $120. Of course, we would split the money, but still I was making eight to ten times my allowance each time we went out husting!

All the extra money created another problem, how to hide it from my parents. I had two very loving, caring, watchful parents, so I decided to set up a front company cutting hair. It wasn't a total lie because I did cut my homeboys' hair for a couple of bucks with a pair of hand-me-down clippers from the legendary eastside barber, Big Ed, so I was able to avoid questions or suspicions about where the extra money was coming from.

Not long after the new year, my family stopped by my Tia's house.

As soon as me and my cousin Sticky Fingers were alone, he asked me with a serious look on his face, "Did you hear what happened?

No what happened? I replied with intrigue.

Me, Rico, and Jonny got busted for robbing the school. The cops got the key, and we're getting kicked out of school.

You little punk, how did you guys get caught?

"We were coming from the mall and Jonny wanted something to drink, and Rico told Jonny that I had the key. Jonny kept wincing so I agreed. And we would have gotten away with it, but somebody passing by in a car called the cops from a cellular phone. We were already a few blocks down