The Neighborhood Bully

When I was very young, there was a boy, a few years older than I, in the neighborhood who was the local bully. He took pleasure in tormenting others, especially the girls. He was caught touching young girls inappropriately on a few occasions. He lived around corner from us in the house next to his father's undertaker business. One year they were enlarging their business and there was a huge pile of dirt from the excavation there. All of the kids were climbing the dirt pile pretending it was a mountain. The bully showed up in his full nastiness. He held me down and put worms down my back. Of course, I went running home screaming.

Sometime later all of the kids were playing in my front yard. The bully again showed up with a rope. He swung the rope at us. The rope wrapped around my legs. He gave a mighty yank and the rope pulled off of my legs leaving large, painful rope burns.

He seemed to take pleasure in tormenting me. He used to hide in the bushes when I was walking home from youth group at the church on Sunday nights. When I got near him he would jump out at me and scare me. It got so I was afraid to walk home by myself at night. He always seemed to know when I was on the way home.

The last straw was an incident that was witnessed by my father. I was riding my bike on the street in front of my house and minding my own business. The bully appeared from behind a bush and knocked me off my bike. Dad saw it happen and was in a rage. He caught the bully by the scruff on the neck and yelled, "If you ever touch my daughter again I will beat the crap out of you. And if you don't like that go tell your old man and I will beat the crap out of him also." That was the end of my torture by that bully. He was so afraid of my father that he never bothered me again.

Incidentally, he grew up to be a decent young man and took over his father's business.