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In reply to the discussion: Have you ever been bullied? [View all]rufus dog
(8,419 posts)A kid stopped me and stole my money on the way to the mini mart. Moved away but when I was a senior in HS I had a friend who lived on the street where I was bullied. I described the kid to him and he took me to a kids house was a few years older. I was all set to go nuts and this kid with bruises on his arm comes out, I realized that his dad was probably beating the crap our of him so I just left.
Also I moved to a new school midway though 7th grade. A big kid befriended me on the first day, let me hang out with him at lunch and warned me about the two bad ass brothers who beat everyone up. Now the big kid, Charles, was probably five foot ten, 150 to 160 pounds as a Seventh grader, he had friggen muscle definition so I went home in fear of who the hell these two brother were that could intimidate Charles. The next day I see the two tough kids who were three inches shorter than me, about the same weight, (I was a skinny kid) but had a wiff of facial hair. They came over with a bit of an attitude but nothing major.
As a kid who often had to attend new schools, it is amazing what a minor change, like a new kid, does to the fragile equilibrium of an elementary or Junior High. Anyway this Charles kid and his family were great people, turns out Charles was this amazing physical specimen but his family not so much. His older brother was a book worm, his parents just average Joes and Janes. Charles invited me over for dinner on my first week. Before dinner they made comments about my name and then went over and put on a Steely Dan album and were shocked that I knew the song and the album. (It was Phoenix, AZ 1975, which would make it 1955 in most of the rest of the U.S.) Anyway Charles brought up the brother bullies at dinner and I made some comment that they had been fine the first week He commented that it was not a common week and maybe they were a bit off because of a new kid. I told him that they were smaller than me and I could take out one if he could take out another if they picked on anyone. At this point his father commented that although he told him never to fight, if someone was picking on a family member, a friend or girl then he needed to stand up to the bullies.
Nothing goes down the next week but on a Monday or a Tuesday of the following week we were all out playing kick ball and one of the bully brothers throws a ball point blank at a girl running to first base. He stands over her as she is crying on the ground and I run up and push him. Now I am trying to figure out how to not get my ass kicked, Charles is behind me, the brother is behind the other brother, and I know Charles is going to kick one brothers ass, but I might get my ass kicked. I am trying to talk my way out, in a tough way, telling the kid to apologize to the girl, he is having nothing to do with it and slightly pulls back to punch me which causes me to duck and drive into him with my shoulder.
I am shocked that my quick push from my shoulder has layed the kid out for a microsecond, then I realize he is bleeding from the mouth and his brother is sprinting off the playground to the street. Charles is standing next to me with a red fist and it hits me, being a half a foot taller than all of us he just decked the brother and his other brother ain't going to take an ass whoopin. Now later that year in Little League we learn that the brother's father is an out of control asshole. Charles' dad sits us down after a game and explains to us why sometimes people act like they do and we should always try to understand why someone acts a certain way, and we actually got it.
So, after a long story, I must confess, that either Mitt's father, or mother, was a major fucking asshole.