Victor who is a street vendor in Downtown Crossing from Somerville, simply admits, "I'm not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally."

Another area where the skinheads of The Pit resemble the English skinheads is social class. "We're all working-class oriented," says Modley, who works in Baby Watson.

"They're not real skinheads if they're rich," says Chris from Methuen.

"Yuppies are definitely facist," says Chris.

Surrounding the reactionary ideas and harsh appearance can be an atmosphere of violence. As Modley says, "Violence is the only way to survive in certain situations."

But many skins say that they do not deliberately provoke violent situations, but just sort of fall into them. "Skinheads are stereotyped as violent," Victor says. "I try not to fight. I try to keep peace and have no trouble."

Victor gives an example. "One night a friend of mine was in Christy's Market near Newbury Street," he says. "Then some people--college students--yelled out to him, `Hey cool guy with leather,'" says Victor. "He came and got all of us. Then they were all scared and humble."

Sometimes the curiousity that the skins draw is more humorous than violent. "Once in a while we'll catch people taking pictures of us," Victor says. "I was eating in Charley's with some friends one night," he added. "Then I see a geek in a paisley shirt. He was angling his camera as he was eating, taking pictures of us," he says. "If people want to take pictures of us just be cool, just ask. Don't be like this geek, angling the camera while he was eating."

As the skinheads grow older, many tend to fade away. "I'm one of the oldest skinheads," says Victor, who is in his late 20s.

"The leaders don't hang out any more," says Modley, who is in his early 20s. "When you get to be my age, you should be taking care of your life," says Modley, who plans to be married soon to a woman who has been in the skinhead scene for years. "My heart's with my friends, but I'm going to have a family soon." Modley says he hopes to get a union job or join the Army Reserves after he marries his fiance who is the manager of Baby Watson.

The general consensus around Harvard Square seems to be that as long as the skinheads are left alone, there won't be any trouble.

"Basically, it's far enough removed from us that it doesn't hurt our business," says Out of Town News operations manager, James N. Finn. "We haven't had any problems with them."

"We have had complaints from time to time," says Captain Dennis P. Sweeney of the Cambridge MBTA police. "During the Christmas season, we have an officer stationed there, partially because of those kids," he added. "They're an occasional nuisance...not much trouble."