Bully-

Every kid has a time when they or one of their friends has to stand up to great odds or to someone twice your size. Bullies usually are a few years older than those they torment and large enough to impose their wills. In our case she also happened to be a girl. Now don’t tell her that or she would have thumped you. Most young men wouldn’t admit a girl was about to beat the crap out of you if you didn’t obey her every will. The intimidation was usually greater than the inflicted pain, but not always which made the intimidation sufficient to inflict most commands. I remember one winter day shortly after a snowstorm that we went to her house to play with her younger brother. Now that was our mistake, it was increased by the fact that their parents weren’t home, thus offsetting any possible infraction of our civil rights or what ever other rights are bestowed upon small little boys. At the time we needed to go – she had decided that we couldn't have our boots, which also happen to be the only shoes we had worn. There wasn’t much we could do to stop her, as she was at least two feet taller and stronger than all of us together. This event was solved by the easiest short term method – a phone call from our mother to hers, but that was after we had to walk home without shoes and in the long term made us a little antsy as I’m sure she wasn’t happy about getting in trouble. Her greatest act of intimidation to me happened one late summer day in my own backyard. My father was a great gardener and had more than one location for his crops. One year he planted corn at the back yard. In this corn I received an ultimatum, eat the raw corn or die. Fresh corn was great cooked - I hope it is raw. No such luck, it wasn’t but it was better than the alterative. I don’t know how much I ate, but it was more than one piece. My brother tells the story that on multiple occasions she would block the street not letting anyone pass. Kind of reminds me of the Billy Goat Grouch. You would then be required to go back and around the block the other way. On one such occasion she finally met her match. One of our friends, unlucky for him had a broken arm, which ended up being lucky for the rest of us. Upon being stopped she started to torment my brother and this friend – during this conformation he got so mad that he let fly the punch of the year – cast and all. It probably would have knocked the rest of us out, but it sent her home crying and no one could remember any more trouble from the troll of the Boulevard.