I still remember the first fight I was ever in. I was in grade 5. We lived on the Indian Reserve in a trailer park in Kamloops BC. I have an older brother that use to like fighting, and I had seen him win lots, and he made it look easy.
It was a cold winters day, we were skating on the outdoor rink, just a bunch of kids having fun. One of the trailer park owners kids Chucky, came to the rink and wasn’t wearing skates. He had just come down to bug people, and he was successful. He started to pick on one of the smaller kids and made him cry. I skated over and told him to stop. He told me to f off and pushed me. I have never been good on skates and ended up on my ass. I angrily jumped up and told him to F off and he just socked me in the mouth and down I went. I got up and headed home determined to take off the skates, put on my shoes and come back and teach him a lesson. I went home put my shoes on and went back! When I got there I called him out and we went at it. He proceeded to beat my ass! I went home like a wounded puppy, tail between my legs, bruised and bloody. My brother went back and beat up Chucky, and then told everyone “Nobody beats up my brother but me!” Thanks bro… I think.
The first time I was ever jumped by a bunch of guys was also in Kamloops. It was grade 9 or 10. I was on my way home from a soccer practice. I was walking down the street when I saw a group of about 10 guys up ahead and my intuition said it was a situation to avoid, so I crossed the street walking in front of the drive in theater entrance and then turned left to cut across the dirt field beside the drive in. I heard a voice behind me say “hey”. I didn’t look back I just kept walking. I heard footsteps coming up behind me and a voice said “I’m calling you!” as an arm came over my shoulder grabbing me by the hair pulling my face down to catch his knee a few times. He then started punching me in the face while the rest of the gang caught up. That was my introduction to an asswipe named Lee Kilty! He then held my head down and yelled at the others to kick me. A few of them kicked me pretty good in the face, and a few of them, guys I had thought were friends from school, tried to not kick me too hard in the face. One of them said to leave me alone, and Lee went off on him saying kick him or we will kick you too, so he kicked me in the face too. Some guys at the drive in came running to the fence and yelled at them to leave me alone, and Lee let go of me ran up to the fence and started challenging them. One of the gang, a guy named Rocky, leaned over my bloody beat up face and whispered “If your gonna run do it now. Go go!” He didn’t have to tell me twice I was fricken gone.
When I got home my parents called the police and my brother and a few of the
Osborne brothers, our neighbors and friends went looking for them. The police took all the info, the docs checked me out and stitched my lip, said I was battered and bruised but would be ok. My brother and our neighbors didn’t find the gang, but they did find one of the guys, slapped him around and told him to let the rest know that I was out of bounds for them, and if anyone touched me again they would get a beatdown, cuz “Nobody beats up my brother but me!” Thanks again bro…. I think.
A few days later the police arrived to say that they had Lee. They told my parents that I was the lucky one out of 3 kids beat up by them that day. One poor guy was on his way home from a ball game, and Lee used the kids bat to smack him in the side of the head. That poor kid was probably going to be deaf, and suffer brain damage. The other had been beaten to hospitalization as well. Oh lucky me!
For some reason the police never charged him for the assault on me. Some bullshit about him being from an abusive family, and charges already being laid blah blah blah. I don’t give two shits if your from an abusive family, it does not mean you get to go out and abuse others! You should know first hand how horrible it is, and you have the ability to end the cycle of abuse and start new beginnings! It is not a valid excuse! I have learned as I got older that this would effect me for life, both the beating, and not having anything done about it. It definitely taught me that acquaintance’s are not friends, and one needs to learn to protect themselves because there truly are evil people out there that want to hurt innocent people. Thanks for the lesson’s… I think.
The second time I got beatdown by a gang was years later at a rock club in Vancouver. It was a rockin place called Club Soda where through out it’s time I got to meet, gig and party with a lot of rockstars. I was there one night watching the band Smash LA, when a fight broke out on the dance floor. Some guy was getting ready to throw a chair at the band when the singer, Johnny Harley, came flying off the stage and started hammering the guy. A bunch of other guys jumped in, the rest of the band dived in and a brawl broke out. I turned to say something to my buddy Ian, but he was gone. Somebody had grabbed him from behind and sent him headfirst backwards down the back stairwell. I was looking around when all of a sudden something smashed me in the face and I was knocked out. ( I would later find out from a friend who said “wow, couldn’t believe you were getting up after Victor smashed that chair on your face” that that is what happened.) As I came to, I realized I was face down on the floor and a fight was raging all around me. I went to stand up and all I saw was a Dayton Boot tee off on my face knocking me out again. The next thing I remember was being in a back room with ambulance people flashing a light into my eyes asking me questions while they tried to stop my face from bleeding. The chair had put my teeth through my lips and cheek. The boot had closed my right eye and it was so swollen and fat, I could see the swelling with my left eye. They took me to the hospital, where I sat for hours with no attention because I had no medical. At some point some friends showed up to see how I was doing, and decided it would be better to take me home as no one was going to look at me anyway, but I couldn’t leave with out some one to look after me. A doc came over and told them I had a concussion and should not be allowed to sleep, and then he changed a couple of the bandages that the ambulance guys had done and they sent me home.
I had no idea what the future would hold, but I would find out later that a dear friend of mine would have a son with the brother of the guy that laid the boots to me, and Karma would take care of him anyway. He hung himself a few years later at Christmas. Nice Christmas present to leave your wife and kids! This was in an era where cocaine and alcohol ran rampant, steroids were being introduced and freebasing was just starting. I ended up watching a lot of friends and musicians lose everything, including their lives over the next few years.
The last time I got a good beating was many years and 3 kids later. I was living in Richmond, had my kids half time, rotating week by week. I had taken a job as a djay at a nearby strip club for a few years, and when I left the gig I was able to get a couple of friends in there to djay. I was stopping in to visit one of my buddies and say hello. I was hanging with him at the djay booth when we decided to step out. While we were outside I saw a couple of guys come out that I had known when djaying and called them over. They came over and one of them grabbed me by the throat, pushed me up against the wall and started punching me in the face talking about me owing someone money, that I had ripped these guys off and was going to pay. I gotta say, it took me by surprise! It also took my buddy by surprise. He went to step in and the other guy grabbed him and said stay out of it. I told the guy that was punching me in the face that he had the wrong guy. He said “wrong answer!” and punched me again. It is amazing how many things go through your mind when you are confronted with something traumatic and violent. I had known this guy through the bar, and knew he was a tuff guy with biker connections, and could tell that even though he was punching me in the face it wasn’t as hard as he could. He punched me a few more times yelling “When are you going to pay them back!” I kept saying “you have the wrong guy!” and he would punch me a few more times and yell “wrong answer!” Lot’s of things went through my mind, the first being “How stupid are you? Your standing there in front of me with your legs spread apart and your nuts wide open, if I knee you in the balls and then gouge your eyes out… !” Then “‘If ya do that this is gonna escalate big time, and it is not you he even wants! He is looking for an answer, give him what he wants to hear… ” And then I heard myself say “Ok Ok, I will pay, I will pay!” He released his clamp on my neck and asked “when?” I said as soon as I can, how much do I owe?” He said “2000 dollars and you better pay it soon or I am coming back! Nobody rips off my friends!” I said to him, your gonna feel pretty stupid when you find out I am actually the wrong guy! He said “Just fucken pay so I don’t have to do it again!” Then him and his buddy went back into the bar. My buddy looked at me and said “What the fuck just happened? Who did you rip off?” I looked at him smiled and said “He has the wrong guy!” My buddy asked why I said I would pay? I told him it was the magic words! That was all he was listening for and it worked, he let me go. My face was bruised, swollen and bloody, and my buddy said “I have to go back inside and djay, do you want me to call an ambulance?” I said “No, I have been beaten way worse by worse guys, I will survive!” We both walked into the club, he went to the djay booth and I headed over to the bar where my friends were working. They took one look at me and asked what had happened. I told them, and they went and told the guy that had punched me out, that I was the wrong guy. Yes my name was Steve, yes I had djayed at the club, but no I wasn’t the one that had ripped off the guys. I had been right, he felt pretty stupid! I went to the bathroom and cleaned up the blood, saw how bad my face was and decided I should just go home. This happened in early December. I was having a tough year financially and had come to the conclusion it would be a very slim Christmas for me and my kids. I was kinda running in the downer mood category, bumming that I couldn’t find enough gigs to make things more comfortable, but knowing we would get by. It was about a week before Christmas, I had wrapped up the few small presents that I could afford and put them under the tree. It was a lonely week, as the kids were at their moms that week. I would sit out by the tree and look at the presents and pray that I would have an awesome Christmas with my kids and the presents didn’t matter! It did, to me, and I have to say I felt like a failure father! It was in the late afternoon just before Christmas, when I heard a knock at my door. When I answered it I was surprised to see the guy that had punched me out. He said sorry over and over and I told him it was ok. He had the wrong guy but he was just trying to help his buddies that had been ripped off. It was all good! He asked me to come out to his car, and he proceeded to pull out a huge pile of presents, including a giant white teddy bear! He told me that he couldn’t take back what he had done, but that he could try to make Christmas good for my kids! I actually cried! I thanked him and shook his hand. It ended up being an awesome Christmas for the family. The kids got a pile iof presents, and they even got to give their mother a giant white teddy bear which made them extra excited. They were so happy, it still brings tears of joy to my eyes.
When I told my friend Gord Foster what had happened I said “Man, if all I gotta do is take a few punches in the head for my kids to have an awesome Christmas.. I will roll with the punches!”
Gord looked at me and said “Seasons Beatings!” and we laughed and laughed, and every year we still laugh!
Love and light always!
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