Rumble in the Rental Yard

 


"The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

     This is a sad and shameful tale that was only told to Greg and not even discussed within the family. It involved an actual fist-fight between my Dad and an ignorant red-neck who worked at a rental yard in Paramount. This was during Christine's  equestrian days and she was serious enough to compete in horse shows with her arabian horse Narawna. My Mom was sent to this rental yard to get a horse trailer to be used in transporting the horse to a show. However, the dumb-ass who rented the trailer did not connect it properly and the jerry-rigged, half-assed job he did created a dangerous possibility of the trailer getting loose from the hitch and causing the a disastroud accident. Principal in the danger would be the towing car which was my Mom's cat where she and Chris were riding. Just the mere possibility of putting these two precious ones in harm's way cause BC to boil over in rage.He headed for the rental yard and the demanded to talk to the yahoo who was so careless the might have killed my Mom and sister. BC showed up highly steamed and when the greaseball fool refused to accept responsibility or to apologize the goal of my Father changed from words to the situation where he could slug the guy in the face. He tried to get him to step off the property but that failed and  when he attempted a kick in the balls with the ungainly cowboy boots the younger and more fit bum caught his leg and got him to the ground where he straddled him and began punching him in the face. The knuckle-dragger had the upper-hand as BC sputtered and growled but could not get back on his feet. Blood was flowing from a cut on the bridge of his nose and he gasped in frustration as his adversary occasionally punched him. I was a sophomore in High School and was maybe 115 lbs but I  was wearing some sturdy hard shoes and thought for a minute about kicking the bully in the head but I chickened out just before the cops arrived. The Old Man was in his mid-50's and the unapologetic dickhead was probably 30 so it was a match doomed from the start just on stamina alone. BC's best shot was the get guy incapacitated by a solid toe of his cowboy boot into the nards but he overestimated the height of his kick with the hindrance of his boot cut white levis and down he went.  The cops arrived promptly and BC had his story and the rental dope had his but in the end they just let them both go. The cop asked me if my Dad used any bad language and I answered in a positive that I realized was the wrong play immediately. The ride home was agonizing as he bore his humiliation in silence and it was hard to ignore the gash in the old man's nose. He was 50 years old and hampered by a bronchial condition now called COPD that he carried most of his life after suffering severe pneumonia twice as a child in Missouri. The man had very little lung capacity and had no business fighting anyone, especially a man twenty years his junior in a street brawl. Knowing who BC's friends were around LA I would not doubt the trailer hitch guy got his comeuppance someway or another later on.

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