A History of Fighting

For my job, sometimes I get sent off to throw bricks in different cities.  Today, it was in Gallup, which is 2 hours north.

During lunch, I had a conversation with one of our guys named Greg, who, at first glance, reminded me of Iggy Pop.

Anyway, he told me stories of his wild high-school days in the 70’s where he actually formed a real-life fight club, beat up school rivals, and occasionally fought the hell’s angels motorcycle crew. He also beat down 4 guys at once and won a road rage fight against 2 others. Over all, he never lost a fight.

I thought it was cool, these fighting stories, because they reminded me of my days as a young elementary school student, getting in at least one fight every year. I never lost a fight, except for one; it was against a dorky 4th grader when I was in 2nd grade, and he was much bigger than I was. But, that same year I beat up a different 4th grader, so it wasn’t so bad.

When I was a kid, I could tolerate a lot of verbal taunting from other kids. But when they said anything about my mother or anything as personally direct, then I would lose it. I would react like Forrest Gump did in defense of Jenny.

One story, for example, was when I was on the bus to go home. I was 7, and got in a fight with some 9-year-old kid named Caleb. Caleb was sitting with a friend in the seat in front of mine, and I was sitting silently minding my own business. Caleb began to tease me, like he often did that year, but he was braver this time with his friend next to him. Another kid was close by, a neighbor boy from India named Suneel. Caleb went on and on, but I was keeping it cool, and didn’t want to react to his stupid antics. But then, from Caleb’s mouth:

“You have sex with Suneel!”

And I cut loose.

I lunged over the seat, and with everything in me, I wailed on Caleb. I pummeled him, and even as he started screaming and crying, I kept going. Eventually the bus driver came back to break it up. The entire bus was silent, except for Caleb’s whimpering. Of course, he never bothered me again.

My temper lasted through all of elementary school, and a little in middle school, but by high school, I was as docile and calm as a hindu cow. I don’t really know what happened. Maybe it’s for the best, because after you reach a certain age, you can’t end a fight with just one punch and a flow of tears.

I like fight stories.