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When in high school, fighting earned an automatic suspension. We had a loophole due to campus design. Campus was in-town & we were allowed outdoor lunch before Nov 1 & after April 1. If one crossed the street, one could smoke or fight without risk of suspension. Kept guys honest
Fights matter. Keeps mouths in check. Challenges boys & men. Defines them. Cops tell me Internet Gangstas & their posting cause shootings in cities as these guys talk smack & then must save face. They skip a fistfight and go straight to shooting. Fighting = Release valve
One High School legend lost 4 fights in 1 week. He was held back multiple times but then sent to HS as he was too old for jr high. He did remedial classes prior to his frosh year. Come his jr year he was 19, using school to pick up girls. He made a play for a 17yo’s girlfriend
For the record, 19yo was a jerk who terrorized kids in jr high, then everyone got their growth spurt & found out he was average sized. He was dumb & mean. He impregnated a decent, younger girl and didn’t do anything to help her. If he was talking to your GF, twas a threat
This was fight 1: 19yo vs 17yo. They crossed the street. It was 2 punches. The 17yo dropped the 19yo. As he started kicking him, the 19yo’s pals jumped in to protect him. Everyone watching went back to their lunch & laughed. 19yo lost some tough guy cred.
Fight 2? On Tuesday, 19yo talked smack to another jr (16yo tall, lanky guy). He saw the first fight. He said “Let’s go at lunch”. Word spread a fight was coming at lunch. Excitement! Sure enough, it took 30 seconds, 16yo charges 19yo & pops him 3x. Pals protect 19yo from worse
Teachers did what teachers do. Smoke outdoors on lunch duty, come by when the fights were over and threaten people with detentions. Kids were telling them what happened, and they didn’t bother to tell the 19yo manchild to cut it out.
Fight 2 had a much bigger crowd due to the build up, and afterwards it was what everyone talked about in class. Even the girls paused their clique behavior and were happy to see this guy get beaten as no one had lifted a fist to him after he abandoned the girl he knocked up.
Everyone is laughing at this 19yo. His face was swollen from the punches and one hard slam into a car. He had to save face. Even the girls he flirted with made fun of him. He didn’t want to drop out, but he skipped school that Wednesday and we wondered if we’d see him again.
We did. For fight 3. At Thursday’s lunch break 19yo starts jawing at a guy w/dyed red hair who was a Fugazi fan. This guy was 16yo, shorter & 40lbs lighter. Before the fight begins, someone yells to the 19yo’s crew “Get ready to pick ya boy up off the street.”
They were right.
They were right.
To this day, I remember the punk guy being calm & cool waiting on the 19yo. Very intense vibe. After a couple punches, he growled & stomped a giant Army boot heel into the 19yo’s back that made everyone go “Oooooo”. Most punk thing he ever did.
By now, the 19yo earned the nickname Fairy >Last Name<. Guys tell his friends that he should drop out and just work his night job. Not budging. Kids applauding Fugazi guy with dyed hair who was a hacky sack expert. Now he’s a fighter. But Friday...
Fight 4. Finally, teachers on lunch duty were hovering near the 19yo. They do their job. No fight. But there was a 4th fight. Yes, because of the 19yo’s mouth in a late study hall. He mouthed off to a freshman. In lore, the Freshman said “Brickyard, after school”.
Brickyard was shorthand for a construction supplier that was a short walk through the woods adjacent with campus. Kids went there to smoke weed, drink, whatever after school. It had been The Spot since campus opened in the ‘60s. This *15yo* was taking a 19yo there to fight
The 19yo’s cred was nil & the frosh was a good sized football player. My sibling was a frosh, too, and told me in the school parking lot before we went home about this. Forget going home. We jogged through the woods after school hoping not to miss it.
We missed it. The many witnesses leaving informed us. Fairy lost again! The 15yo beat the 19yo to a pulp. The 19yo’s pals didn’t show up. The 15yo knocked him down quickly, then kicked the 19yo until he turtled and screamed for mercy. We laughed & went home.
For the record, each guy (even the punk guy) who beat the 19yo had a date for the Spring Fling dance the next month. Fighting is good. Fighting works. It clarifies, cuts through & captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Evolution is a result of fucking & fighting better
Did the schools sit on their hands as a bully got what he deserved? This is America. 2 big changes. 1. Outdoor lunch became an earned privilege, 2. They put up a fence on the back edge of the woods bordering the Brickyard. For my last 2 years of HS, no more daytime fights
The 19yo never came back to school. Teachers & peers couldn’t shoo him away, but getting his ass beat & the nickname Fairy worked. His crew explained they had warned him Wednesday and he still pushed it vs the harmless punk/ska fan to prove he was tough. They were done with him.
We joked that like a Fairy he disappeared in the woods.
I did see him again. I was 25 & he was a mover for my friend’s parents. When he saw my friend & I for the first time since that fateful week, his face froze up. SHAME! Fighting is good. Fighting worked. WE MVST RETVRN!
I did see him again. I was 25 & he was a mover for my friend’s parents. When he saw my friend & I for the first time since that fateful week, his face froze up. SHAME! Fighting is good. Fighting worked. WE MVST RETVRN!
