How the Fraziers deal with bullies

Part I: "Walt Clyde Frazier" vs. "Karon"

My brother Evan (Beer-on-the-Girl) and myself (Walt Clyde Frazier) moved to Teaneck in the spring of 1985. I was 8 and at the end of third grade, and BotG was 5 and in kindergarten. My parents (PopsRick and Linda) picked Teaneck for many reasons, I assume a couple of which were its diversity and quality school system. Shortly after we moved in, the summer came and I got to playing around in my neighborhood and meeting other local kids. I was a couple of blocks away with kids from the neighborhood doing whatever kids do. One kid, we'll call Karon, was one of the tougher kids in the neighborhood and for whatever reason wanted to kick my ass. As I don't remember this personally, the rest of the story is told with the help of PopsRick's recollections.

(from PopsRick's perspective): I was in the sunroom in the new house working on screens or some such when I heard someone run up the front stairs and slam the door...only moments later did I hear a young voice yell from outside... "[Walt}, I'm gonna fuck you up!"

I tend to move slowly in these situations, let them play out a bit...the next voice was [Walt]'s, excited, challenging, maybe 5 seconds later...

"Oh yeah, come in here, Karon, let's sit down and see who can play the piano better!"

Pause...

(young voice, Karon's)..."Forget you, Karon."

Karon walked away and never messed with me again.



Part II: Beer-on-the-Girl vs. "Ron"

Not long thereafter, Evan ran into a bully of his own. Once again, PopsRick recounts the story...

When Evan started taking the bus, the pick-up was at the corner of Selvage on Margaret...there were usually 5 or 6 kids, no parents, so Linda and I took turns 'keeping track' of Evan. I normally turned the corner on Selvage and pulled over to the side. One day I saw (in the rearview mirror) a boy MUCH BIGGER than Evan come up to him and push him hard. Evan looked at the boy, dropped his bookbag off his shoulders, and assumed a karate stance (Walt and Evan both were taking karate classes at the time....The big boy did nothing, and backed down to a kid half his size. That night I told Linda not to worry about the bus stop anymore.

And Evan never had to worry about that kid again... (who we recently found out grew up to be a thug as an adult).


So, two different styles... one tough, one, uhh... unorthodox... and the Frazier boys got along fine in Teaneck after that.