 |
In the fall of 1997, in a computer programming class at Bowsher High School, in Toledo, Ohio, five very different guys formed a group, in which they were to work together to create a computer program. Elsewhere in the school, was a group of people who spent much of their time at a coffee house called "Sufficient Grounds". They didn't know it at the time, but when these two groups came together it would change their lives forever...
Baby X
The programming team, made up of John Learned, Chris Brandt, Colin Morse, Ben Crissman, and Adam Mead, thought of themselves as the children no one wanted, and took the group name "Baby X". They were introduced to a small, hole-in-the-wall sub shop called "MTO" by a mysterious newcomer named Dick Kramp. MTO, with its great food, hottie waittresses and late closing time was perfect for these guys. John, realizing that this place had great potential, recruited two friends, Mike Rankin and Ben Mack to experience this new hang-out. They were soon joined by Kevin Rutan, John Egner, Jay and Tommy Salazar, Mike Johnson, and Chris Carroll. This new, extended group of gentlemen became the new Baby X, and the BX revolution was on. The place to be on Wednesday and Saturday nights was MTO, and they were given free run of the place, often staging wrestling matches on the floor, dancing on the tables, and even filming a movie. One member of this group even went on to have a short fling with one of the waittresses, which ended in a full-blown fiasco, and is what many believe to be the downfall of what have come to be known as "The MTO Days". During this time, however, through Dick many new people began to arrive on the scene at MTO. They were the other group from Bowsher High School, known as...
The Grounds Crew
This crew was started by three best friends, Steve Fortlage, Matthias Pommeranz, and T.J Heintschel. They went to Sufficient Grounds every friday and saturday night to meet new people and try to pick up girls. They met all kinds of new people there.One friday night, T.J. brought a friend with him named Dylan Bass,a real pain in the ass yet fun to be with guy. After that night Dylan was part of the crew. Later on Scotty Evans started to come along as well as Ryan Drew. For them, S.G. was the place to be and have fun. After two consecutive years of hanging out at old S.G. things became a little old so they looked for a new place to hang out. They were introduced, by Dick Kramp, to a great sub shop called M.T.O. They made this their new hang out and ended up going there before playing pool at Southwyck Lanes every night. After this group started going there, they began to hang out with another Bowsher group that was always there. After awhile the two groups were all good friends and the Grounds Crew and Baby X intertwined.
As these two groups became familiar with each other (many people in each group knew people in the other group already, but some did not), a defining moment occured on April 7, 1998. Evans threw a massive party at his house, which marked the first time this 'supergroup' had ever partied or drank together. In retrospect, it was clearly a sign of things to come.
The Wolfpac
May 29, 1998 at the OLPH Fest was another big night. When Kramp, Mack, Matthias, Rankin, and T.J. decided to walk the fairway together, it formed a new group which they called "The Wolfpac". Less than a week later, at Mack's graduation party, The Wolfpac expanded to include the members of Baby X and the Grounds Crew. This kicked off what proved to be one of, if not the best summer ever for many of us. With the noticeable loss of Learned, who started taking classes at BG, the rest of us had no objective but to have as much fun as possible. During this time, Tony Abramczyk, Neil Burkhardt and Steve "Shaggy" Fehr joined the 'Pac. The 'Pac began its "takeover" by invading places like Southwyck, S.G., Chi-Chi's (to watch wrestling), Damon's (to watch wrestling when something cool was going to happen), Maxwells, and, of course, MTO...until it closed, 4th of July weekend. It was hard, but the 'Pac moved on to bigger and better things.
The amazing charachteristic of The Wolfpac was the diversity of its members. People who had never hung out together in their lives were becoming best friends. Those who were labeled as "freaks", "preps", "dorks", or whatever else, were all getting along, in a great show of unity. However, even though the Grounds Crew and Baby X were now one, many members still hung out with the old friends, and the group wasn't totally unified. Then, in early August, 1998; Bass, Drew, Fortlage, and Mack took a weeklong road trip to Cincinnati. These four came back better friends than before and The Wolfpac was now one HUGE group of friends. After a few jokes made about us being a "clique" (which couldn't have been further from the truth), The Wolfpac name was replaced by...
The Cliq
Unfortunately, this name change would be a sign of (bad) things to come, but for the time being, The Cliq was picking up right where the Wolfpac left off...having fun any way they saw fit. In late August, the Cliq closed out their huge summer by throwing Rankin a birthday party at a camp site at Maumee Bay. One blow-up pig, one human sundae and one great time later, school began and the fun slowed up. Learned and Brandt headed off to school, but the rest of the Cliq stuck together. Some tension, however, was developing within the group. At that point, Drew, who had not been around in quite some time, re-joined the group and was surprised to find people fighting. So, with some help, he organized the "Much-Love Barbecue", a barbecue held at Swan Creek park. Though they were tired from an incredible football game, at the end of the day, the boys were again as close as ever.
It was around this time that the Cliq began to take on the role of cheerleaders as they went all out for the Bowsher volleyball team. While some of them did it to get laid, everybody had fun, as they even made road trips to Lake and Willard High Schools to support these girls. These games proved something about the Cliq, however. As these guys made t-shirts, signs, and screamed till their vocal cords shredded, they no longer were just a group of friends, they were becoming known. In fact, they started influencing everyone around them. By the final few games of the season, the huge crowds that showed up for these games followed the Cliq and cheered their hearts out. These games were the start of something big. On Halloween night, Mack threw an excellent party. As well as this went, the group had bigger and better ideas, so when Mack's dad left for the weekend a month later they did it again, only bigger and better. Meant to be an "exclusive" party (meaning only Cliq members and any girls), the Cliq proved to everybody that they could party with the best of them, as many called it the best party they had ever been to. When others who were not invited showed up, they were kicked out...by Neil, Mack made out with a girl he barely said two words to, and many other memorable moments marked this occasion, including the Cliq gaining one more member--Siwa.
The Cliq continued to have fun in the following weeks, over winter break, Learned and Brandt returned and the newest Cliq member threw a memorable New Years bash. Three days later, however, the Cliq had another member leave, as Rankin moved. Again, the Cliq partied on and even brought back some past glory as they once again became cheerleaders, this time for the Mighty Ducks broomball team. This became a Saturday night tradition for awhile, until the season ended. As always the boys were looking for new forms of entertainment, and found one in Bowling Green. Every Thursday night, many members could be found at Howards bar in Bowling Green. This hole-in-the-wall bar was somewhat symbolic as it showed how we had gone from small coffee and sub shops to small bars. It was around this time that some of the members started to not get along. No one really knew why, some argued that everyone was just spending too much time together, others had more negative opinons, but one thing was for sure: there was friction. The fun and partying continued, however, as Jan, who worked with many of the Cliq members and was a mother figure to them, began to let them throw parties at her house. In early March, during the college spring break, Rankin and Learned returned for the week. During the high school break, Colin threw a huge party.
Still, the problems that were forming in the Cliq continued to grow. Relationships were faltering, tempers were flaring, and there was alot of miscomunication. In the midst of all of this, however, there were bright spots. Ben Crissman walked away from Prom '99 with the Prom King crown, and expectations grew as everyone knew summer was coming. Learned, Brandt and Rankin would be returning, the Cliq picked up yet another member (who would turn out to be the last), Nate Grant, the graduation parties would be plentiful, and the festivals (if anything like the year before)would be a damn good time. Unfortunately, these expectations hurt the Cliq more than it helped it due to expectations that far exceeded reality. All the problems could NOT be solved overnight, and the problems continued. Dylan threw a 3 day long party over Memorial Day weekend at which all hell broke loose. Some semblance of order was restored, and the OLPH festival took place a week later. While the first night was promising, and TJ's barbecue the next day was a blast, things went downhill from there, as many of the old problems resurfaced.
The Cliq once again showed its resillience, however, at Bowsher's graduation, when Bass, Mack, Rankin and Shaggy were unjustly kicked out of the building for being too "loud". Taking matters into their own hands, these 4 held a protest outside the building, getting many laughs, pissing off all the right people, and sending the message that the Cliq wasn't to be messed with. Summer rolled around and by this time, the Cliq had become the most outspoken group of people at and around Bowsher. In classic Cliq form, they had fought through the problems and continued to have fun to this point. Everyone knew who they were and the group that, when it started out, included many nobody's, was now the most well known group of people at Bowsher. The grad paries began to flow, with Fortlage, Evans, and Kramp holding a huge joint party, and the season topped off with Dylan's parentaly supervised kegger. On July 11th, the final major event in Cliq history occured when Bass, Fortlage, Grant, Mack and Rankin took a 3-day trip to Windsor, which, like Cincinnati was to the Wolfpac, became one of the most memorable occasions in these young men's lives, as they were able to forget about the problems in the Cliq and just have fun in true Cliq style.
Upon returning however, they realized that real life was not like the party they had just returned from. Shortly after this time, TJ, feeling ousted from the group, "resigned" from the Cliq, and did it formally, in such a way that the members realized what a clique they had really become. To compound this incident, Learned posted a reply to TJ's resignation on the website, pointing out to everyone that this group had become completely full of themselves, and were being immature. These two events opened many eyes. Soon after, six more people put in their "resignations" and those left in the Cliq made a decision. Too many people were getting hurt. Too many people felt obligated to do things just because others were doing it. And most of all, too many of them were being immature. Almost all of them were going to college, it was time for them to drop the whole "secret society" image, and just be normal, mature friends. So on the evening of July 22, 1999, the Cliq (dynasty, as some would say) was no more.
The ending for this great group of friends was somewhat bittersweet. They were still friends, but no longer acknowledging them as a single unit meant the end of an era for them. While the Cliq had its fun, things were never the same after the summer of '98. During this time, it was all about fun. Goldberg was God, Puff Daddy's "Come With Me" blared out of everyone's car, and a few games of pool was all it took to keep these guys busy. An MTO sub tasted damn good. A coffee from SG hit the spot. Swingers was brilliant and The NWO Wolfpac could do no wrong. These were simple times, no one was trying to impress anybody. This group of guys, popular, unpopular, whatever; was just out to have a good time. Looking back on it, that's exactly what they did. This time will never be forgotten by those who experienced it.
|
|