All his life in public and private, he would speak of being bullied on St. Paul’s streets and in playgrounds. In his memory, whole blocks existed in which the Macalester and Randolph boys never dared venture because “there were bigger and uglier kids that lived around there." He considered his neighborhood to have been “medium tough," yet a school friend, Jack “Pudge" Geduldig, who lived on Stanford Avenue, five blocks away, judged that“there was no such thing as ‘rough neighborhoods’ in St. Paul, except down at the levee."
With a bitterness that actually increased as he grew older, Sparky insisted that it had been"almost impossible to go to the playground and enjoy yourself without some older, bigger kid coming and spoiling it." His childhood had been tainted “by kids that push you down and knock you over and won’t let you swing on the swings that you want to swing on." As often as not, he spoke of these bullies in the present tense. David 87
在公開和私下的場合，他會提起在聖保羅市的街頭上和在幾個遊樂場場所被人家欺負的事情。就他所能記得的，他住在的格達爾迪格大道和倫道夫這整個地段，“有長得比較不好看的大孩子”。 他認為附近是 “中等難以居住的住家”， 但這種講法並不是大家都能接受，比方說他有位校友，名叫杰克.矮胖子， 住在離他家有五個十字路口遠的斯坦福大道，這位校友則認為“這附近沒有什麼粗野的鄰居， 有的話也只在招待會上。”
他的痛苦隨著年齡繼續地生長，他堅持“到外面遊樂場一定要有比他年紀大的，或者是比他個子大的親友互相陪同這樣可以使他內心的陰影得到變壞。”他的童年曾經有小孩子把他推倒在地上，然後用腳踢他，還“有些小孩子拉著他坐著的鞦韆，不讓他在上面盪來盪去。”這些被人欺負的事歷歷如在眼前，經常舒自跟人家講這些受人欺負的時候使用英文的現在進行式，猶如一種不能改變的事實。—謠謠譯
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