Freddy
Back when I was a small child, and I mean small, I was the object of amusement for the bullies that circulated through our school system. I went to public and private school, so the bullies I encountered were everywhere. I wonder if people ever formed a bully club or something, because they seemed to know when a new victim arrived at their turf.
Grew up in the NYC suburbs, so the tough guys had a lot to make up for, being suburbanites and all. These guys were vicious. They delighted in torturing people, and they were good at it.
This one guy was my first bully; his name was Freddy. He had a younger brother, Joe he was his stand-in. When Freddy wasn’t around he would try to step in, but wasn’t as effective, so you could get by him. He would then tell Freddy, who would then have a new reason to go after you---apparently he took this deputy thing too seriously.
I first met them both, when I was in second grade. They would seek me out, day after day, after day. Freddy would kick people out of their chair and sit behind me and pull on my hair. At lunchtime, he would jump in front of my in line, and his brother would pull me out of the line, to the back. These were their daily procedures. I endured this for a couple of years. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I am a runner. Freddy made me a runner. The minute the school bell rang, I was ready. I lived 1.5 miles from the school. School let out at 3PM, I was home at 3:05 I remember this vividly.
After a couple of years of my complaining about these two, to my parents, my mother decided to go have a chat with their mom. I was dragged along for this, you know, to identify the suspects and all. When their mom opened the door, she laughed at my mother, said, “Get over it, they’re just children”, and slammed the door on my mom’s face. She was furious, beyond anything I had seen. So my dad went on over. He returned to inform us all that that Freddy and deputy were fatherless, and they mom showed him, how well their door worked.
My mother was against my fighting, which is funny, because my father was an amateur boxer. But as an adult, I can see that reasoning….as a kid, something had to be done about this.
I had been looking to do something with all the money that was burning a hole in my pockets, and found the answer when I walked past this garage where one of our neighbors was teaching karate to some of the kids….
I used to work for the neighborhood paper every Wednesday, doing the inserts. They paid very well and a lot those days. Then on Thursdays I worked for a plumber down the street, doing stuff around the office. That, with the fact that I still had a fat allowance, had me living the good life.
I went down the street and paid for my classes, and kept it basically quiet from my parents, until one day my dad drove by and saw me twirling nunchuks ( they would really have a hard time getting that monkey off my back, later on). After I fessed up to my dad, we decided to keep it from my mom, until later on. My dad told me to keep cool and not start showing off my karate and get into more “trouble”; and that’s what I did…for about a year, I kept going to classes, keeping it cool.
The first week back from vacation, they had us lined up to get into our new classrooms I was standing along these concrete stairs, halfway up…all of the sudden who is standing behind me? – Joe.
I was very upset that these guys were still alive, but at least his evil brother was nowhere. He starts teasing me about trivial stuff like always, and when I turn around, his brother shoves his jockstrap cup in my face, life a gas mask. I am scarred for life from just this one incident. I cannot convey how sick to my stomach I got. –as he did this, he informed me that he had never washed this item. Yes, there was plenty of evidence to believe him---he was very, very nasty---he smelled and had what I figure was psoriasis …his skin was flaky and he constantly scratched it raw. Him and his brother always had lice or some other nasty stuff happening.
I pulled my face out, lost my balance, and fell down the stairs. As I fell, just like a bad nightmare, I heard them both laughing, with all they had. I was seriously hurt. My parents were called, I ended up with my arm on a cast, and as I went back to school, they kept on. Now I had no defense with a cast on.
I think this was the first time in a long string of like events in my life to come, that I decided to self-diagnose myself after a few weeks and took off my cast. I was in line for lunch, they started with their torture again, and the rest of that afternoon, I spent planning how I was going to dispatch these two.
The minute the school bell rang, I went outside. I stood just outside the school grounds as I watched these two, actually looking for me. I waited until most of the people had left, then I started going, “pssst, Joe !” when Joe separated from his brother and got near, I pulled him out of sight and wailed on him….I went after the chief. I was on him, for about 5 minutes, before in a panic, he started running away: I was fresh, and ready to continue this, so I decided to torture them…
As they tried to make their way back home, I kept alternating between the 2. I was using trashcans, stick tires….anything I would find along the way, to whip them, hit them or throw at them. No one stopped me, as everyone knew them as the neighborhood hoodlums. I chased them to their doorstep. I went home….very happy. I skipped home, stopped at the candy store and celebrated, all the way home. I got home, about an hour later. My mom had sent my other sister to look for me, but she had not seen me because I was coming from the opposite direction. I told my mom what had happened, and I could tell she was pleased but did not want to admit to it.
So the door rang, and there she was---Freddy’s mom. With both kids in tow…all bruised up and various minor cuts. She started complaining blah, blah, blah….(can you see it coming?)---yes, my mom looked at her and said, “Lady, get over it, they’re just kids” and slammed the door on her face.
Freddy avoided me after this event. I began to enjoy a long career of bully elimination service, during my school years. I had many fights, but this was my very first one. I have never forgotten Freddy or his brother, because the last thing I heard was that they continued on to become hardened criminals who didn’t make it past their 30’s.
I continue on with my life…