I was bullied pretty severely in grade school, so I used to get beat up all the time. Occasionally I’d come home after being beaten up only to get hit for my mom for getting into a fight.
Later on in high school I involved in a large-scale bar fight where I got cracked on the head with a glass bottle that left a permanent scar. That was a jocks vs. punks thing - they claimed one of my friends was hitting on one of their girlfriends, but really I think they were just roided out and wanted to hit something.
And in university when I was DJing at the student pub when the rugby team got into a fight was the football team. I idiotically ran out of the booth to help the bouncers, who were caught in the middle, and got punched full in the face. Thank God I was wearing contacts that night. In case you’re wondering if I can take a punch from a drunk rugby player? The answer is no.
I got in a lot of barfights in my early 20’s. I learned a few things: 1) I am not very good at it, 2) being hit in the face doesn’t hurt nearly as much as you’d think, but 3) taking one on the ear can.
Then I finished grad school, moved to NYC and entered the full-time job market, necessarily ending that behavior. I haven’t raised a fist in anger for 20 years ;)
I’ve been in 4 fights. 3 as a kid, one as an adult.
5th grade- I got punched in the face. i repeatable punched him back multiple times in the face. He had a huge shiner, and I felt bad about it.
7th Grade- came back from a Tae Kwon Do tourny with a broken foot, and 2 broken fingers on my right hand. that is the day the local bully decides to pick on me. The classic after school fight, he mocks my MA, and throws a kick, I grab his leg, drop him and beat him up left handed. We became really good friends after that.
7th Grade again- I got bullied a lot–hence the TKD training. Picked on in metal shop, lost my temper and threw this kid twice my size in the dumpster. I hear him for years at parties…“i remember that Siegel”…he is probably in jail now.
2007 Red Sox playoff run-I was training heavily at the time in traditional Kung-fu. I’m in the local 7/11 and the guy in front of me -obviously drunk- raise his hand to smack his girlfriend. I elbow to the face, kick his knee out and drop him. I know the prime directive of don’t get involved in other people’s stuff, but i just can’t let a guy smack around his girlfriend like that. I get her to leave and let him up after that. He thankfully decided not to continue our relationship. It isn’t the fighting that scares me, it is the fact that I don’t really want to hurt someone badly.
Once in middle school when I was pushed too far and things got really out of hand. I felt horrible at the time but in retrospect I was in the right.
More recently, a guy at a bar launched himself at my throat and started throttling me with a battlecry of “you better fucking accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior!” and I had to fight him off, but I refrained from “beating him up” by the thread’s definition. Once I got him off my throat he wasn’t really a threat. And yes, I’m aware of how ridiculous that sounds, heh.
The first one was in grade school when I was about ten. This kid was bullying me pretty hard until one time I just snapped, grabbed him by the neck and started shoving his face in the sand while screaming that he should never get near me again. We got separated, I got a slap one the wrist and he got a suspension, because I was the straight A quiet kid type and he was a dysfunctional asshole. Much to my surprise he actually stayed away from me ever since. So whenever I started in a new school I would find the most obvious bully. I’d make myself a target to him and when he tried anything I’d just unload everything at him. And like the first time I always got away with a slap on the wrist. Got me through eight years in some of the worst schools in my city without incident. But I don’t think that would work for everyone. I was a pretty meek and passive kid but I was always bigger than my classmates and when I hit it hurt.
But in general I’ll do everything to avoid confrontation.
Having an older brother makes you tough. Not super tough, but when you’re ten and getting punched by your 14-year-old brother at home, another 10y.o. punching you is pretty weak. I never really handed out a beatdown, but I got in punch exchanges several times until high school, when I inexplicably became a wuss and backed down from any fights.
As an adult, there are a few times when I’ve been fed up and shoved somebody across the room, but I’m a biggish guy so they would always back down. (note: this was because they were picking on a friend in most cases, not because I’m teh asshole.) Can’t stand a bully, especially when it’s me.
I don’t know how I didn’t get beat up. I had a smart mouth and was literally 87 lbs. and 5’7" as a Sophomore in high school. Greasy haired poor kid. Got man-handled some and threatened a lot and had blood smeared on me by football players after I split some ketchup packets over their favorite teacher. I guess our bullies were subpar. The jokes (50% were self deprecating, great for your long term self esteem :) ) got me out of a lot, but mostly I just got called a “faggot” a whole bunch. I think I learned fast exactly how to stay under the radar. All the ladies thought I was funny and I was sarcastically nicknamed “sexy”, more as a term of endearment, though. To this day, 20 years later, many females still call me that when I rarely run into them.
When I went to my ten year reunion, I was 6’4", bald (by choice) and had a Fu Manchu dealie. No one recognized me and they all were friendly once they realized who I was. Fuck them. Not bitter at all. ;)
THe anger inside makes me want to be a bad ass, but everything stays bottled and buried and I smile and move along.
Wait, did you ask for everyone to come in here and post as catharsis?
Interesting Freudian slip. You sure you just don’t enjoy the physical contact with other boys? ;o)
(I used to work with a guy in his 40s who was deeply in the closet–he would tell people “I’m not gay!” even when they never asked–who liked to pick fights with young guys because he liked the way the “young flesh” felt as he was punching it. I have personally seen him try to bate a kid in his car into a fight.)
Well, I’ve been beat up in the sense that someone pretty much was in a position (and had an inclination) to wail on me unopposed. But he was fairly restrained, in retrospect. My lower tooth is still bashed in. Been thinking about seeing an orthodontist…
Well no, I haven’t been in a real beat down, either giving or receiving. Growing up in Louisiana I got in quite a few fights, all quite involuntarily. I was a fat kid and took some beatings – I remember most of them were just a single punch to the gut while the other kids stood around laughing as I wheezed and gasped for air.
The one time I came out on top in a fight was the last actual fight I was in, this would have been Mardi Gras 1995. I was trying to get back to my friend’s apartment and was pushing my way through a crowd. One particularly drunk dude made some large motion with his arms, slinging beer all over me. He got angry fast, accusing me of spilling his beer, then he took an awkward swing at me, didn’t connect. For whatever reason (it was late, I was tired, a little drunk) I was in no mood to deal with him, so I popped him in the chin and he went down like a ton of bricks. Luckily for me, his friends didn’t get involved, just generally shrugged as if to say, hey, Mardi Gras.
At first I was kind of pumped about it, I was all hey! so that’s why people do this! But the next day and after I’ve always harbored guilt about this. Dude was just an angry drunk, and I wish I had tried to find a non-violent way out. Oh well.
When I was a kid (6th grade) I decided I suddenly hated the guy who had been my best friend for the previous 3 years. I don’t know why. These things happen. Anyway, I told him to meet me after school, so I could show off in front of the other guys in the class. Then I punched him like a girl a bunch while he defended himself. Not really a beating, since I was a nerd. A couple of weeks later, I was at his house and he kept throwing berries in my face, until I grabbed him and spun him in a circle and then leveled him with a blow to the stomach. Still, not a beating per se, but it did knock the air out of him pretty well. Other than that, I’ve never been in a fight, though I’ve come close a few times (usually by doing something stupid). I almost got shot one night, too, but she didn’t end up firing the gun.
I don’t really understand why people fight. It’s a pretty stupid thing for anyone over 12 to consider, IMO. I suppose there are some exceptions, but most fights are silly.
Not since 8th grade. I’m surprised to hear about the bar fights some of you have been in. I like a cold beer in a bar as much as anyone, yet I’ve never been close to fighting. I don’t even remember anyone trying to pick a fight.
Until Florida, never. Then there were, let’s see… 4 bar fights, and one fight with some douchebags in the parking lot of my apartment complex. The bar fights were an even split with me getting beat up and the other guy getting it. The one in my apartment complex started when two assholes sitting on a car swinging a golf club around smacked the side of the taxi I was taking home. I knew the driver really well, and he didn’t take any shit. He stopped the car, pulled a crowbar out from under his seat, got out and went after them. They ran about 50 yards away and kept taunting him, but instead of trying to run after them (he was like 60 years old or so and no way was he going to catch some young college kids) he took the crowbar to their tail lights. Pretty awesome, except for the next part.
The driver left and then the two started approaching us (my girl was with me) with the golf club and a big black mag light. They were yelling all sorts of shit, calling me and her names, challenging us, etc, and finally it just crossed a line with me. I started yelling back and then the dude with the golf club suddenly dashed at my girl and whomped her with the club shaft. She went down. I grabbed the club and it snapped; by then the guy with the mag light was rushing me. I just held onto whatever part of the club I had and swung it as hard as I could at his head. Luckily it was the business end of the club and he went down, cold.
Then it’s just me and the other guy. At this point I actually started to realize he was kind of a big guy and this may not end well, so when he went in for a punch I cracked him in the face with the mag light. He went down and I just kept punching him over and over until he said “I’m done! I’m done!” which I guess snapped me back to reality. I still have no idea what I was feeling when I just kept punching him. Afterwards the cops came and after a long, long deliberation and speaking with the taxi driver determined that I acted in self-defense (especially since they had bloodied my girlfriend, and it was right outside of our apartment). We were let go and they were hauled off.
