According
to Richard Price's
book (and movie) "The
Wanderers", The
Ducky Boys were "stunted
Irish madmen,
none of them over
5 foot 6".
They were also
portrayed as
soul-less killers
who never
said a word.
For
many Bronxites, the Ducky Gang was
one of those mythical gangs that many people
heard of, but not many people saw. I have heard
references to them as "the Boogeymen of the Bronx"
- where everyone was afraid of them, but nobody
ever saw them...
Most
of the Ducky Boys and Ducky
Girls that I have spoken to get quite
a kick out of those portrayals of them. The Ducky
gang were quite human - they werent all short,
they
weren't all Irish, they weren't
killers, and many of them have no problems speaking
up.
The
Duckys are a group
of many whose main turf was Bronx Park near French
Charlie's field - You can
see current pictures
of a section of their hangout on my Ducky Boy Territory Pictures-2006 pages.
They
were big in the area from their young start at
the "Duck" Pond (Twin Lakes in Botanical Gardens)
in
the late 50's
to their eventual
fading out circa 1972. Over the years many kids
passed through the Ducky Boys. Sadly not all
of them grew up and they will forever be known
as the "Lost Boys of the Bronx".
There
were a few things people found out if they were
unlucky enough to get on the bad side
of
the
Ducky's - They
were great with slingshots, and there were a
LOT of them. The one thing that most
say the Wanderers
got right was that when they fought, there were
usually huge numbers.
They
were also a fiercely
loyal bunch of friends that always believed "Hurt one of us, Hurt us all"
