Page 32 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

SCHOOL-YARD BULLY

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When I was about 10 years old, and in the 5 grade under Mrs. Niblack, there was a young man in out­
class by the name of Neal Perkins.

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Incidentally, I have never seen nor heard of Neal Perkins since I was in the 5 grade, as apparently he
moved away from Lake City and I never had any more contact with him.

Neal was one of those kids who were bigger than all of his other classmates, but he was of a very gentle
quiet nature, and was obviously not your typical rough neck boy. As I recall, Neal’s father was a
surgeon at the V.A. Hospital.

Anyway, 2 or 3 of the boys in the class were inclined to be sort of bullies, and would pick on anybody
they thought they could get away with picking on. I can recall that probably the worst bully in the bunch
was a boy named Vernon Adams, who was not very relined nor cultured, as he was a real rough neck.
Vernon found that, although Neal Perkins was a good bit larger than he was, that he could pick on Neal
and Neal would not try to do anything about it. This bullying got to be worse and worse, and he finally
pushed Neal Perkins to the point one day out on the play ground where Neal Perkins started crying. It
was strange to me to see a boy that large crying, but that was a signal that Vernon Adams should have
noticed, because the next thing that happened Neal Perkins grabbed Vernon Adams threw him down on
the ground, and literally beat the hell out of him. I have never seen anybody so angry and vent their
anger so much, as Neal Perkins did that day, and when he was finally pulled off Vernon by some of us
other boys, (because we thought he was going to kill him) Vernon Adams could not get away from there
fast enough, and nobody ever tried to bully Neal Perkins again.

So my advice to any boy who is inclined to be a bully, if you are picking on a boy who starts to cry, you
had better watch out because all hell is fixing to break out.

Incidentally, Vernon Adams met a violent death before he ever finished High School.

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