I watched some clips of the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury (real name - I checked), retaining his heavyweight title at Wembley the other night. 94,000 people turned up to that event.
Tyson Fury was born three months premature and weighed one pound. He is now six foot nine inches tall and weighs considerably more. He is actually fat round the middle, but I would not be so impolite as to mention it to his face. He has an 84 inch reach and I am 75 inches tall.
I have a strange response to very big men, and I put that down to my older brother (who was six foot five and over 20 stone) bullying me when I was a kid. All I wanted was a role model to look up to, but I only had one brother to choose from.
I was born into a big family, but at six foot three I was the smallest male. I was also a technical wimp. Gypsy kids half my height used to bully me at school too, so there was no escaping it, either at home or walking through the streets of the rough town nearby where I was raised.
Some older boys would waylay me on my way home and gave me a good kicking every day for a week. I came home limping one day and my father asked what happened. When I told him he instructed me to walk home as normal the next day and he would be waiting in hiding somewhere near where the boys would intercept me.
The next day came and I saw the boys look up as I approached, preparing themselves for the fun. My father was nowhere to be seen, but I carried on walking toward them with slightly edgy confidence.
When I got up to them they blocked my path and began the ritual punishment. I looked frantically for my father and noticed him about a quarter of a mile away, running to get to me. He had hidden in the wrong place due to some error in communication.
He arrived too late to stop them bullying me but it did not happen again, even though they - in my eyes - showed him a shocking lack of respect. There were some rough kids around for such a genteel patch of Surrey.
I have always despised bullies, especially ones who get their dirty work done for them. You know the little shit I am talking about.
In today's world an attack like that would be cause for prosecution. I have no tolerance for bullies. As a kid, I once pushed a 6 ft. bully in to the deep end of a swimming pool. The bully (nor his friends) never came near me again. The lifeguard banned me from the pool for a day.
ReplyDeleteI stopped my brother's bullying by pinning him on the ground and refusing to let him up. He was twice my weight at the time. He could not believe it.
DeleteOh yes precisely. Apparently he was far too busy looking at Angela Rayner's legs.
ReplyDeleteThat story is, I think, just another nail in Boris's coffin. A spurious and scurrilous accusation which could well have been a left-wing trap printed by the stupid right-wing Mail on Sunday.
DeleteI am pleased to hear so many were at the boxing match. I used to watch boxing on tv with my father, I have fond memories of that time of my life. I went to live boxing matches when I moved to London in 1969 and was shocked when I saw the blood which had never showed up on black and white tv. You being bullied is difficult for me to imagine but imagine it I will and it must have been horrible.
ReplyDeleteI used to watch Cassius Clay with my dad at 2.00am in the morning too. Being bullied taught me to never knowingly bully others, but I have done it unwittingly in the past.
DeleteBullying within a family is unforgivable.
ReplyDeleteBad enough from your own generation, absolutely wrong from elders
Even worse from your parents, not that mine ever did. They did their best and my brother did his worst.
DeleteI just read a very good children book in Dutch language, by Peter Koolwijk, "Vlo en Stiekel "- which deals with the subject of "bullying" - great illustrations too - and though it is very empathic one can also laugh sometimes (the mother of the greatest bully is a "Voodoo mother" and he is meek as a lamb when she comes).
ReplyDeleteIn real life victims of bullies don't have anything to laugh, I fear.
Bullies are sad people, but we cannot afford to be sympathetic when we are being punched.
DeleteI doubt bullying is subsiding; there always seems to be the substratum of insecure children (and adults) who make their way with bullying.
ReplyDeleteI can think of one particular US President who that may apply to.
DeleteAnd several British Home Secretaries.
DeleteSome years ago we went to Dusseldorf for the Xmas markets and Tyson Fury was there too for a big fight. ( Klitchko maybe?) He was staying in our hotel and the morning after the fight ( that he won) he was in the foyer with his entourage, and media. I shook his hand and congratulated him. I remember one couple gave him their baby to hold for a photo. (I am not a boxing fan though)
ReplyDeleteSo you shook the hand of the man who beat up the Mayor of Kyviv?
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