Familiar Heroes, part V of V

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Dammit now my fucking mascara is all over my face!!!

I think this one is my favorite.

I was all choked up writing it, to be honest...Both from childhood memories of Sgt Rock (it's hard to explain to anyone under 35 or so what an icon that character was), and because it made me think of my father's father, and of my great uncles on my mother's side, who went through all that.

Exactly, I kept thinking of my grandfather, he was always so larger than life to me, one of my personal heroes.

Thanks for writing this.  As somebody who does remember, I can tell you honestly, this whole series is spectacular, but this piece, pure gold!!!

When I was a kid, they seemed like giants, because I was little.

Now they seem even bigger.

[Phox]

Motherfuck. We used to play dodgeball in gym class all the fucking time. And that was in high school. I only graduated in '07. Did they really get rid of motherfucking dodgeball!?

Phox,
Was also picked last, couldn't throw or catch, but goddamn it, had fun making a mockery of the game.

P.S.

I was frequently picked last (I was a SKINNY kid, and completely uncoordinated), but I loved dodgeball.  I didn't care if I occasionally got PEGGED (you remember that), or if I got laughed at once in a while.  I loved the game.  It was far better than getting sneered at, as I missed one free throw after another when it was basketball time.

Fucking this.

[Jasper]

As an aside, and speaking as a kid who both got picked last and also got the snot beaten out of him whenever we were forced to play dogeball, fuck that shit.

Fucking assholes, every last one of those socially-approved bullies who tortured the arbitrary outcasts with their webs of shame, ridicule and violence.  All in the name of "fun", of course.





LMNO
-never got over that one, apparently.

You weren't allowed to not play?  Shitty.  I've had good and bad experiences with dodgeball, but I'm glad I got beaten sometimes.

[/jack]

So I've recognized the basic message of the OP for some time now.  I realize that our hardships are as nothing to those who came before, and I try not to succumb to the delusion that my life is hard.  Aside from moving to a pre-modern nation or becoming a soldier, what's a guy to do?

[LMNO]

Sorry for the derail.  I know you were talking about danger, and not about school-sanctioned caste enforcement.  I just knee-jerked.

[Adios]

Dammit now my fucking mascara is all over my face!!!

I think this one is my favorite.

I was all choked up writing it, to be honest...Both from childhood memories of Sgt Rock (it's hard to explain to anyone under 35 or so what an icon that character was), and because it made me think of my father's father, and of my great uncles on my mother's side, who went through all that.

Exactly, I kept thinking of my grandfather, he was always so larger than life to me, one of my personal heroes.

Thanks for writing this.  As somebody who does remember, I can tell you honestly, this whole series is spectacular, but this piece, pure gold!!!

When I was a kid, they seemed like giants, because I was little.

Now they seem even bigger.

Amen to that. My Uncle James McLeod survived the Battle of the Bulge as a machine gun sargent. My aunt still has the flag that was on his casket when he was buried. They named a road after him in Hazlehurst, Ga.

[Requia ☣]

Dodgeball was the least annoying of the games they had us play in gym.  At people were *supposed* to throw the ball at your head, instead of just doing it anyway in basketball.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So I've recognized the basic message of the OP for some time now.  I realize that our hardships are as nothing to those who came before, and I try not to succumb to the delusion that my life is hard.  Aside from moving to a pre-modern nation or becoming a soldier, what's a guy to do?

I'd say help build a nation, character-wise, that's worthy of the greatest generation's accomplishments.  

By that I mean be the example of the proper citizen.  Don't take any shit.  Be what the "Good Americans" hate to see. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Sorry for the derail.  I know you were talking about danger, and not about school-sanctioned caste enforcement.  I just knee-jerked.

S'okay.  Dodgeball is an amazingly sensitive subject, both directions.  People either loved it or hated it, usually for the same reasons.

[Adios]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&expIds=17259,18167,27846,28049&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=James+mcleod+blvd/hazlehurst,+ga&cp=32&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=James+McLeod+Rd,+Hazlehurst,+GA+31539&gl=us&ei=snQnTa2cCYOB8gb0pqH0AQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA

Damn, found it on the internet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&expIds=17259,18167,27846,28049&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=James+mcleod+blvd/hazlehurst,+ga&cp=32&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=James+McLeod+Rd,+Hazlehurst,+GA+31539&gl=us&ei=snQnTa2cCYOB8gb0pqH0AQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA

Damn, found it on the internet.

Blocked.  What is it?

[Adios]

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&expIds=17259,18167,27846,28049&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=James+mcleod+blvd/hazlehurst,+ga&cp=32&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=James+McLeod+Rd,+Hazlehurst,+GA+31539&gl=us&ei=snQnTa2cCYOB8gb0pqH0AQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA

Damn, found it on the internet.

Blocked.  What is it?

A map showing James McLeod road, in Hazlehurst.

[Adios]

Sorry for the derail.  I know you were talking about danger, and not about school-sanctioned caste enforcement.  I just knee-jerked.

S'okay.  Dodgeball is an amazingly sensitive subject, both directions.  People either loved it or hated it, usually for the same reasons.

I was a jock I guess.
I could throw harder, run faster, jump higher, dive deeper and come up drier than any kid on the playground.

[Phox]

My great uncle Paul, a man who inspired me to be the best goddamn person I could be, and the kindest most gentle person I ever had the pleasure of meeting, served in the Navy in World War 2. I didn't know that fact until after he died. The fact he never mentioned it, unlike my father, who brings up his tenure as a Marine at any opportunity, struck me as being worthy of respect. He was the only WW2 veteran I knew. 

[LMNO]

Sorry for the derail.  I know you were talking about danger, and not about school-sanctioned caste enforcement.  I just knee-jerked.

S'okay.  Dodgeball is an amazingly sensitive subject, both directions.  People either loved it or hated it, usually for the same reasons.

I was a jock I guess.
I could throw harder, run faster, jump higher, dive deeper and come up drier than any kid on the playground.

And I was the primary target for every bully in school from 3rd grade through 9th grade.  Which, perhaps coincidentally, is the entirety of my life in Long Island.

[Adios]

Sorry for the derail.  I know you were talking about danger, and not about school-sanctioned caste enforcement.  I just knee-jerked.

S'okay.  Dodgeball is an amazingly sensitive subject, both directions.  People either loved it or hated it, usually for the same reasons.

I was a jock I guess.
I could throw harder, run faster, jump higher, dive deeper and come up drier than any kid on the playground.

And I was the primary target for every bully in school from 3rd grade through 9th grade.  Which, perhaps coincidentally, is the entirety of my life in Long Island.

The only people I ever bullied was the bullies.


Stories written after his death helped create the fictional legends of Davy Crockett. One description claimed that he could "run faster, jump higher, squat lower, dive deeper, stay under longer, and come out drier than any man in the whole country."
edited to add the stolen quote.