Your bullies

For some reason, I started thinking about these assholes this morning. The people who beat me up when I was a kid. The ones who stole not only my baseball cards, but a good chunk of my dignity too. It's amazing that it's been 20 years, and these people would either vaguely remember me or say, "Oh yeah, I remember that kid" if you mentioned my name. Yet, if I could, I would happily strap these people to the front of an 18-wheeler and take them for a cross-country ride behind a gravel truck with an open flap.

I had three bullies growing up. Strangely, all of them were named Mike.
First one was a fat kid nicknamed "Pickle". He'd beat me up at the bus stop, but was really just a stooge for an older, bigger Mike. Dude was about 6-foot-3, two grades ahead of me in school, and a grade-A asshole. He ripped me off on a bunch of baseball card trades (I was stupid about it, but still...) and did it with a smile on his face. I beat up his younger brother a few times, but it wasn't as much fun as caving in this fucker's kneecaps would've been.
The last Mike was the worst. The kid was just an absolute dickhead. Spit on me once, after days of harassment and a couple of other beatings. I snapped, chased him down and got into a wrestling match that I lost. He ended up sitting on my chest and whaling on my right eye for a good five minutes. Left a shiner that was there for about two weeks. Heard later on, in high school, he damn near beat another guy to death in wood shop. I hope he's living on welfare now and has a fat wife.

So...anybody else want to share their tales of woe?

 

I used to get picked on all the time, until I hit a growth spurt between sixth and seventh grade. That, and knocking out three front teeth of one of the worst bullies, pretty much got me a pass from then on.

 

You still owe me last week's lunch money, caped crusader boy.

 

Never got bullied, but I had a friend who had an older and younger brother who took karate. Whenever I would go to their house I got to be the subject of their latest move.

My wrist got so flexible you could bend in pretty near all the way back and it didn't hurt anymore.

But I was a willing -- if stupid -- participant.

I actually used to get in the face of bullies who picked on kids during PE or in the hallways in middle school. Oddly, one of the bullies later became my friend.

 

My problem was, not only was I a very bully-able kid -- my family didn't have a lot of money, I had cheap clothes, and for some reason I didn't realize the necessity of a daily shower until the seventh grade -- but I was puny. I was less than 5 feet tall and weighed 90 pounds as a ninth-grader. So not only did I get the constant verbal barrage, the few times I did get pissed off enough to fight back and try to earn some respect, I got my ass kicked for my troubles.
Middle school and the 30-minute bus ride to school was pure hell.

 

You sound like an after-school special.

 

i was bullied by someone a few years older than me when i was in middle school. luckily the kid changed schools midway thru the year and i never saw him again. never was bullied after that, either.

 

Jason and Troy, started in 6th grade and through middle school. I don't know what became of Troy, but I saw Jason at the wedding of a mutual friend a few years ago and he had become one of the most polite people I have ever seen. I mentioned to him that this seemed like a stark contrast to his previous behavior, and he said he didn't remember the stuff I was talking about. Whether or not that was true I can't say, but he went ahead and offered what seemed like a sincere apology anyway.

 

I figured taking out your anger on bullies is more fun and productive than taking it out on pipsqueaks. One time I actually punched one of them in the face in the lunchroom and the assistant principal swooped in, took him away and no one ever said a word to me.

May have helped that I was on crutches at the time.

 

Ha ha - you were weak and your mother dressed you funny!

 

That made me laugh and I'm going to hell, but then, you all knew that.

I was the smallest kid in my grade all the way through high school. I never took shit from anyone and had a sense of humor to a point about my height, so I very rarely got physically bullied.

However I was the object of verbal, I don't know what you'd call it, "notoriety" almost from day one because of my short stature. My last name is also easy to twist into various pop culture variations, so I got hit from all sides.

Being the constant object of notoriety was annoying though, and I'd be lying if that kind of stuff doesn't shape your personality when you get older. I'm "normal" sized now, but I always think of myself as a little guy physically.

From the waist up anyway. :-X :-X

At some point, you just have to learn to laugh it off and accept your own personality and physical traits -- the good and bad -- for what they are. Whatever teasing I absorbed as a kid have made me stronger as an adult.