Vic the hothead

Ron tells the story of a time when Vic was just entering the gymnasium in preparation for and upcoming church basketball game (church ball is notorious for bad sportsmanship unfortunately).
As he made his way across the side of the court there was a loudmouth player arguing loudly with the referee about a call that was made. Vic wanting to stick up for the referee yelled out,
"Give him a technical!"
To which the player responded, "Mind your own business".
This got Vic just a little peeved so he yelled back a bit louder, "Give him another technical"!!
At this point the obnoxious player started on his way over to Vic to have words with him as well.
When he got with in striking distance Vic let loose with a quick right handed punch which caught the would be trouble maker full in the face and fell back immediately on his back there on the basketball court.
Vic was thrown out of the building for his violence.
When Ron caught up with him later and was able to ask about him about it and asked him how he felt about it Vic said, "Actually, it felt pretty good...."
Vic the hot head!

The athlete of the family

Ron has made mention himself that one of the things that made Vic a hero to us was his athletic ability. Although he got the most notoriety from his football days...All Conference and 2nd Team All State...when high school was over, so was hit football career. Vic was good in basketball too during high school but lacked confidence in his ability and true talent he had for basketball.
Still, of all the sports basketball was the one he loved the most. He continued to play long after his high school days. He and I teamed up for Ward ball in Brigham City. With a more relaxed atmosphere and no pressure to win the conference title his basketball game bloomed and he exerted his natural ability well.
Years after graduating from Mancos High Vic found himself living back in Mancos again with his young family and the year he was there Mancos High had a player good enough to win All Conference honors himself for his talents. Vic found himself alone on the court with this young man and asked him if he would like a game of one on one with Vic. The young man, being competitive and always wanting to win replied..."Are you kidding? I'll eat your lunch!!!" as he accepted the challenge.
Vic took control of the game and schooled the youngster in basketball and then patted him on the shoulder and told him "Good game" after he had whupped him good.

Back to the bully

After having a better fight showing against Dickie, we had hoped that would be the end of the bullying that went on towards Dennis...we should have been so lucky.
Dickie picked a time when he had two of his buddies around to be mean to Dennis on his next attempt. Vic was feeling a bit bold with his newly practiced fighting skills so he jumped right in to defend Dennis again, but was not prepared to take on all three fighters at the same time. He got pummeled worse on this encounter than he did the first time and when Mom found out about it she did not loudly say "I told you I didn't think it a good idea to encourage the fighting mentality..." but I am sure it was very close to the tip of her tongue.
This interaction between Vic and Dickie happened over a period of months. All the while Dennis was getting weaker and weaker as Muscular Dystrophy sapped him of strength. The weaker Dennis got the less interest Dickie had in tormenting someone who was less and less being able to even walk, so there soon came a time when Dickie no longer tormented Dennis and Vic did not have to come to Dennis's rescue at all in this regard.
Still, this showed Vic's compassion for those in the world who are different, who are weak, who are teased and tormented by others. Of all us children Vic would be the one who got into the most fights and I can honestly say that the vast majority of the time it would be because he was protecting the rights of someone else. He not only rooted for the underdog, he was willing to fight for him.

Standing up to the bully

When Dad found out Vic had gotten in a fight protecting Dennis from the bully he decided it was time to help Vic out with the next encounter. His solution was to get some boxing gloves and teach Vic how to be a better fighter.
They would go out into the back yard and actually go at it in a mild manner with Dad giving pointers to Vic on the nuances of keeping your wits about you as you try to take your opponent out.
The next time Dickie came after Dennis in a bullying manner Vic was ready again to come to Dennis's defense. Vic and Dickie had a few words before engaging in hand to hand combat again.
Vic held his own this time and got in a few blows that made Dickie back away and retreat with a few bruises from the battle.
As we headed back home we were full of ourselves with excitement that the bully had been beaten at his own game and when we told Mom the good news she was less than thrilled. She didn't agree with Dad that promoting violence was the answer to this problem but was a bit at a loss as to how it all should be addressed.
When Dad found out about the encounter he was pleased and patted Vic on the back and said "Way to go son!!"
Even in my excitement I asked Dad if he could teach me how to fight. Thrilled at the prospect of me asking for improvement he put the boxing gloves on me, got down on his knees so we could be more eye to eye and he started giving me my first boxing lesson.
"Stand at an angle to me with your left hand kind of out in front of you to use for short punches he said."
"Keep your right hand back closer to her chin to protect your self from any in coming blows like this one," he instructed as he threw a very slow, right handed arching punch at me which I brushed aside for my safety.
"Good job," he said which made me beam while Dennis and Vic looked on.
"Now what you want to do is give me a quick jab with that left hand if you see an opening and just keep your mind calm so you don't get overly excited."
Dad then put his hands down on purpose to expose himself fully, giving me a wide open shot at his face.
"Go ahead and do that jab if you see an opening."
Dad was quite surprised when I let loose with a quick jab that caught him squarely on the nose and even made his head pop back some. His eyes watered up and a quick grin came across his face when he saw the look of terror on my face.
It was a dire sin to do any back talking to Mom or Dad and now that I had lashed out and actually attacked him with a vicious blow to his face....well, some how I had the instant vision that I had a big spanking coming to me even though Dad had encouraged me to hit him.
"You are quicker than I thought. You caught me by surprise with that jab. I'll be better prepared next time tiger," he said. I was much relieved.

Vic's Protective Nature

When Dennis had progressed significantly with Muscular Dystrophy it was very evident he was not normal. This made him an easy target for teasing and the designated mark for the school bully.
Dickie found it very amusing to come close to Dennis and brush up against him which would cause him to fall. It was intentional and Dickie got a big kick out of having power over Dennis with such and easy action.
Dickie was a year older than Vic, four years older than Dennis and six years older than me so he was at the top of the food chain in the local school we attended.
When it was just me and Dennis and Dickie wanted to be the bully nothing was done to him as he towered over us both.
Vic ,on the other hand, jumped right to Dennis's aid when he saw Dickie make him fall.
"What did you do that for?" Vic demanded.
"Because I can" was Dickie's reply.
"Why don't you pick on someone more your size?" Vic spit out.
"You are close to my size. You want to do something about it" Dickie shot back and the fight was on.
Dickie had been the school bully long enough to be ready for the fight Vic was willing to wage in Dennis's behalf ,so that first fight went rather badly for Vic. We all went home and when Vic presented himself and his split lip to Mom she got furious and Vic cried in having to admit that he was so mad at Dickie that he lost his temper.
There was more action in this regard so I'll post the next part soon.

Another Movie Day Adventure

As a five year old child I would spend an afternoon at the theater with my older brothers Vic and Dennis. Those early childhood times spent with my brothers are some of the best memories of my life. One particular afternoon we headed off to see some monster marathon and upon entering the movie house I had been inflicted with a mild case of laryngitis. I knew it would be useless to scream at any movie monsters, so during the shows I was content to just sit in my chair as tense as a frozen log in winter.As we exited the theater and started on our way home we passed Mrs. Johnson, an energetic, happy old lady who greeted us with..."Hello boys".We had been taught to be polite and that a return address was expected, so I tried to get out a "Hello Mrs. Johnson" of my own to mind my manners.To my surprise, the greeting came out full of energy and in strong voice. It seemed my laryngitis was miraculously gone. In a joyous state I walked along the street continuing in my polite mode..."Hello Mrs. Johnson...good morning...hi there..."I was talking out loud to no one as a result of the surprising rediscovery of my voice.Vic and Dennis had slowed to a near stop and let me continue on ahead of them, much amuzed at my babbling conversation with an invisible woman. After five seconds of walking and talking I realized there was a good round of laughing going on behind me. When I turned and realized my brothers were having a good laugh at my expense I became immdiately outraged and ran back to inflict a wound on their laughing lips.Dennis was closer to my age and height so I was going to hit him first. I reached my arm back and was getting ready to land a big, right handed haymaker when Vic stepped in to save Dennis. Vic caught my hand in flight towards Dennis's mouth and easily pushed me up against the store building we were passing by. This only enraged me more so I took a swing at Vic with my left arm that was free. I hit him only once in the chest when he took my left arm and also pinned it up against the building. I had a nasty reputation as being a volcano as a little child and was not about to let this chaining of my arms end my angry eruption, so I started kicking Vic in the shins as violently as I good seeing how I couldn't hit him with my arms. Vic had been in battles with me before and knew how to counter act the flailing of my legs. He simply pushed his knees into my legs, thus completely nailing me to the side of the building.There we were, the three, hardly united Musketeers. I was completely harnessed now by Vic physically, but still had another weapon ready to unleash upon him. My mouth was now working very well as the laryngitis had disappeared and I stuck my face forward and shouted out as loudly as I could..."Shit!!!"Vic's face had an instant look of shock. I could see I now had the upper hand."Shit! Shit! Shit!"I started yelling out as loudly as I could.Vic would have none of this profanity so he let go of my right hand so he could cover my mouth to shut me up. With my hand now free I started pummeling his face as best I could to get my anger out of me and inflict some just punishment. Again, Vic found himself in a dilemma. Should he uncover my mouth and protect himself? Of course he should!!! I was now beating the crap out of him.When Vic grabbed my hand to push it back against the building to save himself I started with my profanities again..."Shit shit shit..."There was no winning the battle for Vic so he let me go completely and backed away about five feet. I was steaming mad, but had used up about all the energy I had left so I just stood there looking at both Vic and Dennis. Dennis had been a bystander through this short war Vic and I had just waged and was the first one to start in with conversation."I'm going to tell Mom and Dad...."I knew I was in trouble.My anger subsided immediately as I made a plan of how I was going to run away from home...it seemed the only way I could escape the long arm of parental law.

Our special movie day time

Going to watch a matinee movie was always a special treat. I suppose like many of you, there was a special day in the month when Vic, Dennis and I were allowed to spend an afternoon in the movie house watching an assortment of monster movies, westerns and an occasional mystery movie. There were a few preliminaries that we always indulged in as we made our preparations for such expeditions. I always have considered myself a normal person so please let me know if you did the same thing I did. First, we always made sure we had our slingshots in our back pockets. Secondly, before entering the show house we would stop at the neighborhood store and buy all the chewing gum we could with what little extra money we had. Third, we'd try to get up into one of the chairs at the front of the theater. Now we are ready for the fun so let the show begin. As the lights darkened and the movie came up on the screen we would pop one of the pieces of chewing gum into my mouth. I always loved the first bites of chewing gum. All that sugar separating itself from the gum and making its delicious trip down into my stomach. You know how fast that sugar leaves though and then you are left with this tasteless bullet of gum in your mouth. Did I say bullet? Of course I did, that is why we would always bring our slingshots along. After much of the sugar was gone from the gum it left a perfect little projectile that fit nicely into the leather tongue of my slingshot. The theater was always dark enough that we could aim the slingshot from my hip and launch my gum wad up at the theater screen and no one was any the wiser that some dastardly deed had just been committed. Most times we couldn't tell if our gum wad even made it up to the screen. If it arrived, did it stick? If it did stick, was it on a brown tree or the black monster? We usually couldn't tell. During one western starring, John Wayne I hit right on target. It was one of those close-up scenes where John Wayne's face covered the entire screen. I pulled back the rubber strings on my slingshot and let go with a very fine blob of gooey gum. Suddenly out of no where, John Wayne had a new mole on the left side of his forehead above his eye. If you had been there that day it wouldn't have been a noticeable addition to his features but, I saw it immediately. That was the day I got the better of John Wayne. Early movie days with Vic are leaving me with a warm nostalgia today.