From: JMPIERCE%USMCP6.bitnet@VM.TCS.Tulane.EDU (JIM PIERCE)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: A new wizard.
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:02:31 GMT
Organization: Grapevine and friends
Originator: spok@MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU

Hello Bear. I do understand. I know you've heard that from time
to time, but I went through similar experiences when I was growing
up. Right after I got out of Navy boot camp, I decided I was never
going to allow people to make fun of me again. I had to put
up with people who didn't like tall, eyeglasses wearing, skinny
people. Of course, the fact that I knew things beyond what was
in the class material didn't make people like me either. Oh, I
wasn't snotty with my knowledge { like in I knew more than
them, not that way... }, just I liked to add things to what
was being discussed in class. You know, I wanted to share my
information. I wasn't liked for that either. In Senior year
English, several people asked me to stop making A's on the quizes
so that they wouldn't look so bad ! I replied that they shouldn't
drink all night and then come to class. No, I didn't get hit
for that, by then I was considered screwy enough not to
*physically* be attacked. "Well Jimmy, I don't see what the
problem is, they didn't hit you !" a teacher. This after several
weeks of verbal abuse on that one subject.
  My father was in the Army and as a result I went to 4 different
high schools in 4 different states. Its bad enough being transferred,
but to have problems because my accent wasn't the norm ! "You
shore do talk funny !" a gum-chewing student with bad breath.
   Or the time in Maryland where I encountered a protection
racket in high school. If I paid them 10 cents a week, I
wouldn't be beat up ! { by them, of course } I wound up
turning them in. In the seventh grade, where/when this took
place, I was 4 foot 8 inches tall and I weighed 78 pounds !
I got angry when they beat up a friend of mine and I chased
and screamed at their enforcer. He was over 6 feet tall and
a tackle on that school's football team. { Sigh. Sometimes
I feel as if that encounter was the mouse and the lion
story. No, I didn't take a thorn out of his paw, but he
did change and got out of the enforcer/protection racket. }
 It came to a head when I left some notebook paper on the bus.
My father was an E-2 and had little money to buy more. So,
I asked the busdriver if he had seen it. I was able to
identify the brand name, etc and got my paper back. Well,
the group of scum thought I was asking for paper to turn
them in ! Thats when they beat up my friend. So, I turned
them in using the same paper. { I thought of it as poetic
justice ! Bwahahaha }.

  Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that your tormentors
have either grown up emotionally or they have met with a
terrible accident. Like old age or met someone who is meaner
than they are/were. I know that one of those who tormented me
went to boot camp, in the Army, and he tried to out-tough
the drill instructor. He lost. Oh well, he learned.
    Actually, I don't feel emotionally scarred from the
experience, but it does take me awhile to open up to people.
'Its always darkest before the dawn...' Legolas or ...

  Bear, let it slide into the dim past of memory. I did it
that way. Of course, this means I remember very little of
elementary school and only about 30-40% of high school.
That method may not work for you. Well, I hope this helps
and try not to let them get you down, whoever they are !

  Later, JimP.
{ When I heard the song, 'Town without Pity' by Gene Pitney,
 I knew *exactly* what he was talking about. }

   Remember, they are not worth the mental anguish or the
dirt to rub their noses in !


* <JMPIERCE@USMCP6.BITNET> Jim Pierce; Bach. Sci. in Applied Computer Science
* USM Academic Computing on the Gulf Park Campus. Disclaimer: Standard.
* "Women are People, *not* property." me