Let's get ready to Rumble! Part 1

Times are indeed different today. If you let a kid out of your sight today,
and something bad happens, you are at risk of public flogging and possible jail time.
Not so when I was growing up. All the parents risked was heartbreak in extreme cases and
having to use the belt for anything else.
My freedom growing up led to many adventures my parents never even knew about. I'll get to that later. But by the time I was my son's age(8) I had been in at least 10 fights with people besides my sister. He hasn't been in any. Not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying it's not common anymore.

The following story happened when I was around 6 or 7.
I used to hang around with older kids in my neighborhood and I got beat up a lot. I went home and told my dad the first time it happened, expecting him to go put a stop to this somehow. Instead he said simply "Don't hang around them anymore". Well the next day I was right back out there with them. There were other kids in my neighborhood my age, they must have been smarter, they stayed away. Anyway, besides the short little grab-ass type of things, the first real fight I can remember was a doozy. I guess the older kids were bored so they more or less pit me and this other kid against each other and basically made us fight each other. We each had about two or three of the older kids in our corner, coaching us to inflict pain. It was not a fight with x number of scheduled rounds or anything, but they would let us fight for a few minutes (or longer) then stop us for instruction. I was better at fighting once I got the action on the ground. We fought standing up boxing style for a few rounds. I used to get nosebleeds all the time back then, and of course it wasn't long before my white sweatshirt was covered in blood. I wasn't hurt at all and actually I was getting mad because the crowd seemed to think I was losing because of the blood. well my anger caused me to kick things up a notch, much to the delight of the older delinquents in my corner. Well things changed for the worse and I don't mean
for me. I got him down in a headlock and was in a good position to hit his face, which I did...repeatedly. Then I somehow ended up on his back, he was on his knees with his hands holding his head. My guys were jumping and cheering and telling me to keep pounding, so that's what I did. One blow after another right in the middle of his back. Some of the neighbors were now coming out and the fight was actually in the front yard of the boy I was fighting. He was struggling to breath now, and somebody yelled out that his mom was on the phone. "Oh shit" popped into my head. I hopped on my bike and coasted down the hill and around the corner to my house. I felt pretty good, not tired at all for having been in a fight that lasted at least an hour. My dad was in the carport. He saw my shirt and did a double take so I said "I got in a fight and I won!" And him being a man of few words said "Good". I had a whole new respect from
those older kids after that. I didn't see the kid I whipped for a while. One day he rode up on a motorcycle and asked if i wanted a ride. I got on and he took me about two miles away from my house and we stopped and got off. He got back on in a hurry and took off leaving me to walk back home. I guess that was his way of getting even. Anyway we moved not long after so that was the end of it. But for me I continued to get in fights whenever the situation dictated. I've been in fights over things both big and small. I been in fights with strangers and fights with friends. I don't fight anymore (too old) and I guess it's different now with all the guns around. But for me fighting was just as much of my childhood (and early adulthood) as
playing a pick-up game of football. Sadly, I don't see kids doing that anymore either.
Well, more details on some of the other skirmishes later,but now I gotta get back to work.