My first experience with bullies came when I started school. I grew up in a middle of the road middle class neighborhood but the kids seemed to be mean. Well, one family was anyway. Their name was Harwell and there were three boys, bobby, charles and gary. When I was in the third grade one of the pupils from another neighborhood was a little fat fellow. He had the misfortune of getting on the bus first and whenever the Harwells got on they punched the round fellow in the face before taking their seat.
This activity went on every day for the entire school year and the fat kid never said a word. It had gotten so bad that there were five or six kids that joined in smacking the big boy around. Well, on the last day of school, Bobby, the oldest readied himself for his morning ritual when the fat kid stood up. "I've had enough" he exclaimed and proceeded to beat the crap out of every kid that had ever hit him. The bus driver waited patiently until he was done and then took us to school.
Even though I played sports and was always good at them I was small. I was strong and fast but just a little smaller than average. Ever now and then some new kid (new in the sense that we didn't know of each other) would decide to pick on me because of my size. In the eighth grade there was this guy that decided it would be fun to knee me in my thigh. When I came into the classroom one morning he asked me if I knew what a Charlie Horse was. I was a country boy and we just called them cramps but I digress. When I said no, he kneed me in my thigh and this big knot appeared on my thigh and it really hurt.
The next morning when I came to class he just grabbed me and kneed me in my thigh again. The third day when I got to class he stood up to knee me again but he wasn't expecting me to react the way I did. He was mad when he picked himself up off the floor. While he was brushing his pants off I kneed him in the thigh. He challenged to to a fight after school. It was a tough go I first but I really enjoyed whopping his butt.
I know big brothers usually protect their younger or smaller siblings but I just didn't happen to like mine very much. Well, not at all really. Still don't if the truth be known. One day one of the basketball players came up to me. Actually, it was an eight grader named Albert Lands and he stood am even 7 feet tall. Anyway, out of respect for me he thought I should know that the team thought my brother was a jerk. He wanted to give me the chance to talk with my brother about his smart mouth before they whooped his butt. "Don't let me stand in your way" I replied.
As much as it pained me, I finally did give in and warn my brother. Not for his good though. I just didn't want my friends on the basketball team to get into trouble.
I know fighting isn't the proper way to handle bullies and most of the time if one acts like they don't care the bully isn't having any fun and will go away on their own. But now and then one just won't go away. Now its difficult to take down a much bigger guy, especially when he has the upper hand to begin with. Bullying just isn't fun unless one has some friends to show off in front of. I would just find out when he got to school and where he hung out before school started. I would just walk up to him and punch his lights out before he knew what was happening.
I know, I got in a lot of trouble too and even was kicked out of school once but I was never bothered by that particular bully again.
Bullying is just a part of life and has been going on forever and will most likely to continue until the end of time. But i have never been one to take crap off of anyone and I'm still not. Sometimes I have even jumped in the middle of a fray to help a policemen out. There are four occasions that come to mind.
That is just my personality. I'm a doer and impossible task or hard work never has bothered me. If something needs to be done I do it. I take care of business, as they say. I suppose I always will.
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