"Code of Conduct" story

I strongly agree with John Katz’s essay “How Boys Become Men.” An example from my childhood of the “Code of Conduct” that Katz writes about, happened during the summer when I was nine years old. A group of guys and myself were all fooling around in the creek at the end of my street. We were doing normal boy stuff; smoking rolled up notebook paper, starting little fires, and looking at nudie magazines borrowed from my buddy’s Dad’s collection. After getting tired of all these activities, we decided to wrestle with each other. During one of these matches a competitor of mine bit me in the back, causing me to yell out in pain. Getting all of the other guy’s attention, they started laughing at and picking on my desperate opponent, who then ran away in embarrassment. Later that night my mom inquired of the circle on my back. Since I had to follow the “Code of Conduct,” I denied any knowledge of it. She concluded that it was a bad case of ring worm from playing in the creek and I forced to apply ointment to my bite for a couple weeks.