Last updated March 7, 2020
Rusty and one or two of his friends once set traps for pigeons in East Park . The put down a little corn and made a snare of string. When the pigeons came to eat, they’d jerk the string and catch the pigeons. Then came the fun part, the pigeons would be stuffed through the window of Anthony Schroeffel’s car and left overnight.
He and his friends would catch garter snakes, paint the snakes, and tack them to the doors of unsuspecting neighbors.
In the winter he would make two mounds of snowballs, one was stacked on the roof of Staub’s soap factory, and the other at the top of the steps. The steps from the street to the walkway had a landing at just about the roof of the factory. He would wait in ambush on the factory roof, and pummel the other kids before they could start up the steps. When he ran out of snowballs he would dash to the landing and up the steps. That gave him the high ground again and he continued his onslaught. When the snowballs were gone, he would run home.