The Most Important Fight That Didn’t Happen

And the one that did…

It’s a simple fact of life that I made my way through grade school as one of the smallest kids. You could put some stock in the “youngest of six” theory – my two older brothers were both taller. And as I’ve written before, one was a gifted athlete.

I can’t say that I had the most pleasant social life in middle school – and that didn’t matter much to me as in addition to being undersized, I happened to be one of the smartest – without having to try.

But things came to a head in the sixth or seventh grade…

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Lower Status

Movies are correct in that there isn’t much you can do when the larger kids in your class (or the grade ahead) pick on you – you minimize the opportunities, and move on as best you can.

But it’s different when someone hardly bigger than you decides to join in.

I really have been a nice guy for most of my life, so sure – my response was to tell him to bug off. But when he wouldn’t stop, I broke and issued the ultimatum – tennis courts – after school – we’ll settle this.

Anti-climactic

And I do recall that word got around, because there were a number of people there after school – but no Bub (not his real name, but I can’t seem to recall it…).

And I never had to deal with him again.

Careful how you phrase that

The other incident is a source of humor, some family bonding, and a little bit of a cringe…

My recollection is that it was a reasonably “normal” morning waiting for the school doors to open. I’m very confident this happened after the Bub incident, somewhere late in the school year of 7th grade.

In any case, there was the usual jostling, and suddenly Frank was being taken down by my slightly older sister who walked by the middle school on her way to the high school. It was intense, viscous, and over in a moment. And as she left she scolded him:

“Don’t you ever pick on my little brother again!”

(You know, the kind of response that I would later read about in “Ender’s Game”…)

The ribbing

And so there was some rumbling about Steve getting protection from his big sister, but given the intensity of the smack-down, it wasn’t very loud, and it certainly wasn’t accompanied by any further hassling.

For my part, I could say that I had no knowledge that she was going to be walking by at that exact point, and didn’t ask her to do anything. (So it’s not like I went looking for help)

But coincidentally enough, I don’t recall having any trouble outside the school from that point on…

Taking a stand

The first involved taking a stand against someone that should have known better, the second was a stand taken on my behalf. Both seemed to have had an effect.

And about my siblings – I’m quite fond of them. No, we don’t have those kinds of relationships where we call each other all the time. They’ve got their own lives, and I’ve got mine.

But if they ever needed something, I’d be there – and I know they would too.