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I was the kid everyone picked on in elementary thanks to my mom and her stupid rules. She said a man never fights, he walks away and that is what she expected me to do, if I got into a fight at school for any reason I could expect a beating when I got home (odd, violence was fine for her but not for me). Anyhow, I went to live with my dad when I was in the 6th grade. The one provision my mom made was she wanted me to attend the same school and not switch schools during the school year. Dad had different rules. He found out that a kid had been pushing around on me and he told me that I better not be starting any fights but I better not be walking away from any either. I cleaned house the rest of that year.
Around the time when I was a freshmen/sophmore I had a bit of trouble as well. Several of the Seniors would pack up and try to pick on me - 'course I was pretty small at the time - didn't really grow until my Sr year. Fast forward to the year I graduated. Was working for the owner of some apartments. He was having carports built. We were doing the gravel work while a contracting crew was putting the roof on the carports. One of the guys up on the roof was the ringleader back when I was in HS. I noticed shingles kept flying down around me throughout the day. Well, that afternoon they were sitting around their truck talking when I came out of an apartment and put my tools in the truck next to them. I walked up to the guy and shared a few choice words (at this time I am 6'1", 210 lbs and no fat, he's still 5'9" 170ish lbs, oh, and I wasn't a Christian yet either). As he looked up to me the look on his face was priceless and he just about wet himself. He worked for the rest of the week and was quite respectful.
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