"you have enemies? GOOD!"

[musclehead]

"that means you have stood up for something sometime in your life" -the eminently quotable Winston Churchill.  lifted this from the Dave Ramsey show.
on a relevant theme (at least to my mind) what line has to be crossed before verbal abuse makes you paste someone in the nose? I haven't smacked someone for calling me names since I was a junior in high school.

moved back to Mahomet Il in the summer between sophomore and junior year and instantly got caught up in the pecking order. the toughest kid in school called me out, I backed down after some of my old friends told me "he'll kill you" (pretty much a direct quote) bad mistake, shoulda taken my lumps I ended up getting them any way.  every thug that ran in that crowd decided I was fair game and made my life miserable for a couple months.  I picked out one that was 2 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier and told him he needed to lay off, right now. he didn't so I popped him right in the nose in auto shop.

later he wiped the floor with me in gym class, after a quick trip to the vice principals office easy pleasy I get left alone for the rest of my high school daze 

I haven't had anyone cross a line far enough for me to say 'shut up or I'm going to lay you out' since then, decades ago 

[NCGhostrider]

I was a quiet kid in school, probably best described as a dork  .   While most of the other kids were off doing things they shouldn't, I was always the good kid, listened to mom and dad, you name it  (I have no regrets about that now btw).

Anyway, I put up with a lot of grief from some of the bullyers...but usually outsmarted them and made them look bad.  I think they actually were afraid of me for what I might do to them to make them look like the idiots they were.

Then one day, in AG class (we still have those down here in the south  ), one of the usual troublemakers decided he would show off, popped me on the head I think.  I pulled a Popular Mechanics out of the magazine rack, rolled it up and beat the hell out of him.  Even the AG teacher was laughing.   I had finally made my point, you mess with me, I probably won't hurt you more than enough to get your attention, but everyone will know it and laugh at you. 

I still don't like to fight, but am big enough and strong enough to not worry about it.    Age has tempered the strength with wisdom.   As it has been said, "don't mistake my kindness for weakness." 

Personally, I am glad things went as they did.  I handled the bully problem, it is part of growing up.  We all deal with problems, learning to deal with them early, is part of dealing with those same types later in life.

Craig
NcGhostrider
99 I/S 

[Serk]

Even as a freshman, I was the biggest kid in my high school. Every punk with something to prove wanted to start a fight with me. It was a no-win scenario for me. If I fought them and lost, I was a big wuss for losing to a smaller kid. If I fought them and won, then I was the big bully "picking on" the smaller kids...

So, I developed a technique of weirding them out.

It mostly worked, had a few get through that had to be dealt the old fashioned way.

The captain of the football team was one of the worst. As it got closer to the end of our senior year, I told him I actually felt sorry for him, we're about to graduate. After graduation, your life is over, and mine begins. He laughed it off...

Fast forward ten years. I was a successful IT geek driving a new twin seater turbo charged mid engine sports car. Went to lunch at a local mall with a co-worker. As we were getting out of my car, hear someone call my name. Turn around to see my old nemesis, the captain of the football team.

"You were right. You were so right. I should have paid more attention in school."

...he was a mall cop...

I didn't need to go to my high school 10 year reunion, I had it in that parking lot that day.

[John Schmidt]

As a kid in grade school, my dad was the School Superintendent and in 5th & 6th grade my mom was my teacher(my first mother died of cancer, dad married my 5th grade teacher). So, in 5th it was Miss Noble, in 6th it was Mrs. Schmidt, a lousy setup.  Everybody wanted a piece of the Super's kid, that's where I learned you can't always walk away from it...was often 2-3 against one.

Following 7th grade we moved to a larger city and there was a kid named Harlan that confronted me one day, saying he heard I could kick his butt. Told him I was new to the area and had no clue who he was, we ended up good buddies for the rest of his short life. But the kid that put him up to it was mad about the outcome so started to threaten me, but never to my face. He was bigger....also soft and fat.  I told dad that one day I was going to beat him to a pulp, dad said to not waste my time because the pulp would still come up talking. A couple years later, old big and soft cornered me behind the high school along with his buddies. Big mistake, he ended up in the ER and I ended up at football practice. Turned out dad was right. After spending most of the night in the ER and staying home from school for a few days, the jerk was still making threatening sounds; just wouldn't shut his big stupid mouth, so I shut if for him a second time....and a third time over the next few months. Guess he was a slow learner, but he finally got the message. Spending two summers on a hay baling crew stacking bales on the flat rack does wonders for your upper body strength.

My last fracas was in the USAF. A barracks loudmouth thought I was to blame for some prank pulled on him and got one punch in. He spent the next month on convalescent leave back home. A barracks full of witnesses kept me out of trouble.

CORRECTION: My last fracas was with a mall cop. Mistaken identity again and he wouldn't leave me alone even though others tried to tell him he had the wrong guy. I ended up tossing him in a water fountain pool nearby and walked away...to lots of applause. Felt kinda good actually. 

[R J]

That's rather funny.

I was always the 140# weakling in high school, but I played football all 4 years and lettered all four years, was team Captain my senior year.

I had a few fights.    Way back when I was in Jr high, a kid chased me home, I run in the house bawling, my dad was home on leave, USMC, he asked me if I thought the kid would give me a worse ass kicking than he would.    I said NO, he said then go take care of business.

I went outside, and just flat beat the sheet out of the kid.     Never had a problem the rest of my school days.

Went in the Marine Corps right after high school, and during boot we had intramural sports with the other recruit companies.   Mostly boxing.   When it was my turn, I drew a big ole boy, he should have been able to kick my arse, but I ended up beating him within a inch of his life.  I was smaller and quicker on my feet.....    No one ever firked with me the rest of the way through boot camp.

After Boot Camp, all I did was go to Korea, went through the Trap and came home whiteout a scratch.   Went to Swamp Lejeune and almost tangled arse holes with a 90 day wonder.   Those of you that don't know that phrase, they are 2nd Lt's with 90 days in the Corps. Wanted  to knock him on his butt, but I had done time with the Colonel in Korea and knew his temper, so I just stood and took it. The 2nd Louie put me on report (office hours) and I was to report to the Colonel's office immediately.   I walked in his office, and since I was on duty & armed, I saluted him.  He asked what happened to my blouse, told him the shave tail tried to rip the ribbons off, he said I didn't deserve or need them.    Colonel paged the Shave Tail over the PA and told him to report to his office immediately.   When he walked in I started to get up and salute him, the Colonel told me to set down.   He asked the 2nd Louie what the deal was, he replied I hadn't earned those ribbons.   Colonel replied, Lt, this young lad has more days in combat than you  have days in the Corps, I know this for a fact cause we served together in the Trap in Korea.    He was told to replace my blouse and I asked for a transfer.    He asked why, I replied I'd kill the SOB the next time we crossed paths, my transfer was approved, and I returned to Korea for the 2nd time.   That tour only lasted from March 18th to August 20th.    I was on a hospital PLANE August 23rd headed for home.    January of the next year I was finally approved for duty.   Discharged Honorably 1 year later. 

I still will not walk away from a fight, even at my age.  I figure I'll get a sandwich while they are trying to get a meal.

[Rocketman]

So, I developed a technique of weirding them out.

It mostly worked, had a few get through that had to be dealt the old fashioned way.

Serk:  FYI:  It is still working for you...

 

[BigAl]

Scrapes we have all had them.

Still alive, but only GOD knows how.

Al

[musclehead]

As a kid in grade school, my dad was the School Superintendent and in 5th & 6th grade my mom was my teacher(my first mother died of cancer, dad married my 5th grade teacher). So, in 5th it was Miss Noble, in 6th it was Mrs. Schmidt, a lousy setup.  Everybody wanted a piece of the Super's kid, that's where I learned you can't always walk away from it...was often 2-3 against one.

Following 7th grade we moved to a larger city and there was a kid named Harlan that confronted me one day, saying he heard I could kick his butt. Told him I was new to the area and had no clue who he was, we ended up good buddies for the rest of his short life. But the kid that put him up to it was mad about the outcome so started to threaten me, but never to my face. He was bigger....also soft and fat.  I told dad that one day I was going to beat him to a pulp, dad said to not waste my time because the pulp would still come up talking. A couple years later, old big and soft cornered me behind the high school along with his buddies. Big mistake, he ended up in the ER and I ended up at football practice. Turned out dad was right. After spending most of the night in the ER and staying home from school for a few days, the jerk was still making threatening sounds; just wouldn't shut his big stupid mouth, so I shut if for him a second time....and a third time over the next few months. Guess he was a slow learner, but he finally got the message. Spending two summers on a hay baling crew stacking bales on the flat rack does wonders for your upper body strength.

My last fracas was in the USAF. A barracks loudmouth thought I was to blame for some prank pulled on him and got one punch in. He spent the next month on convalescent leave back home. A barracks full of witnesses kept me out of trouble.

CORRECTION: My last fracas was with a mall cop. Mistaken identity again and he wouldn't leave me alone even though others tried to tell him he had the wrong guy. I ended up tossing him in a water fountain pool nearby and walked away...to lots of applause. Felt kinda good actually. 

I'm going to ask the offishul handle assigners to  change your last name to 'Rambo' 

[musclehead]

That's rather funny.

I was always the 140# weakling in high school, but I played football all 4 years and lettered all four years, was team Captain my senior year.

I had a few fights.    Way back when I was in Jr high, a kid chased me home, I run in the house bawling, my dad was home on leave, USMC, he asked me if I thought the kid would give me a worse ass kicking than he would.    I said NO, he said then go take care of business.

I went outside, and just flat beat the sheet out of the kid.     Never had a problem the rest of my school days.

Went in the Marine Corps right after high school, and during boot we had intramural sports with the other recruit companies.   Mostly boxing.   When it was my turn, I drew a big ole boy, he should have been able to kick my arse, but I ended up beating him within a inch of his life.  I was smaller and quicker on my feet.....    No one ever firked with me the rest of the way through boot camp.

After Boot Camp, all I did was go to Korea, went through the Trap and came home whiteout a scratch.   Went to Swamp Lejeune and almost tangled arse holes with a 90 day wonder.   Those of you that don't know that phrase, they are 2nd Lt's with 90 days in the Corps. Wanted  to knock him on his butt, but I had done time with the Colonel in Korea and knew his temper, so I just stood and took it. The 2nd Louie put me on report (office hours) and I was to report to the Colonel's office immediately.   I walked in his office, and since I was on duty & armed, I saluted him.  He asked what happened to my blouse, told him the shave tail tried to rip the ribbons off, he said I didn't deserve or need them.    Colonel paged the Shave Tail over the PA and told him to report to his office immediately.   When he walked in I started to get up and salute him, the Colonel told me to set down.   He asked the 2nd Louie what the deal was, he replied I hadn't earned those ribbons.   Colonel replied, Lt, this young lad has more days in combat than you  have days in the Corps, I know this for a fact cause we served together in the Trap in Korea.    He was told to replace my blouse and I asked for a transfer.    He asked why, I replied I'd kill the SOB the next time we crossed paths, my transfer was approved, and I returned to Korea for the 2nd time.   That tour only lasted from March 18th to August 20th.    I was on a hospital PLANE August 23rd headed for home.    January of the next year I was finally approved for duty.   Discharged Honorably 1 year later. 

I still will not walk away from a fight, even at my age.  I figure I'll get a sandwich while they are trying to get a meal.

yeah, thats what I thought when I met you. "i don't want to tangle with this guy" 

[art]

"that means you have stood up for something sometime in your life" -the eminently quotable Winston Churchill.  lifted this from the Dave Ramsey show.
on a relevant theme (at least to my mind) what line has to be crossed before verbal abuse makes you paste someone in the nose? I haven't smacked someone for calling me names since I was a junior in high school.

moved back to Mahomet Il in the summer between sophomore and junior year and instantly got caught up in the pecking order. the toughest kid in school called me out, I backed down after some of my old friends told me "he'll kill you" (pretty much a direct quote) bad mistake, shoulda taken my lumps I ended up getting them any way.  every thug that ran in that crowd decided I was fair game and made my life miserable for a couple months.  I picked out one that was 2 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier and told him he needed to lay off, right now. he didn't so I popped him right in the nose in auto shop.

later he wiped the floor with me in gym class, after a quick trip to the vice principals office easy pleasy I get left alone for the rest of my high school daze 

I haven't had anyone cross a line far enough for me to say 'shut up or I'm going to lay you out' since then, decades ago 

I had almost exactly the same thing in junior high with bullys an I also had to fight in class an outside.I found out that you had to stand up to them an some times they will back down .If they don't you need to stand up an defend yourself.That was back in the 60s today they will shoot you or the leos will arrest you .It's just not the same

[barbarianthemadserb]

Wow, this reminds me of way back. I was the original 97 lb weakling! 32"waist and chest to match!. I used to get picked on all the time up until 8th grade when I came to the USA. There were lots of bullies in Jr high in Warren, Ohio. I saw some popular mechanix ads on muscle building and bought some courses by "Joe Weider". I followed the diet and excercises plus weight training and the first year my weight shot up to about 165 (from 97 lbs). I drank lots of milk (a gallon a day), ate lots of peanut butter sandwiches and worked out heavy with the weights  and could bench press  a lot of weight. Those also were the days when all the so called experts said that weight training would slow you down as you would become "muscle bound". hahahah. Stupid experts!  I remember joining one of the first karate clubs (Youngstown,Ohio) and was still lifting heavy and by heavy I mean 1 to 3 sets of only 1 to 3 reps in the bench press where I was doing 250 lbs as a 16 year old. A karate master from Japan came over for a short stay to teach our club the correct karate techniques and even he said that weightlifting would slow ya down.  Then the students would look at me and say "what about him? weights to not slow him down and he is fast". The karate expert just said "oh, he is just an exception". hahahhahha.
Somehow as I got "bigger", all the bullies got smaller and started to change their ways and become my friends! Go figure eh. I guess power (muscle that is) does indeed imtimidate ahahahh. I never had any problem through out the rest of high school which I finished in Queens,New York. But, I never became a bully as a result of my new found strength.
Bullying seems to be a big problem in our school systems here in the USA and I can really sympathize with those getting bullied.
Kinda good though to look back to see where we came from and what ultimately influenced us in our descisions today eh.
The Mad Serb
Rambling agin? hahahah

[DarkMeister]

"The Mad Serb"

(Zdravo, zemljak!)

I find it interesting that the most advanced martial arts practitioners are also the most laid back, polite individuals. Maybe it's that comfort-zone, self-awareness of 'nothing to prove' or something.
A friend's son is like that. I know he could eat ten punks in one sitting, yet he is quiet, friendly and wouldn't hurt a fly. But could if he had to.

[fudgie]

No enemies but I do have some angry husbands!