Steve Bennett:  

"BULLY" A True Story of Elementary School Life in 1970’s America David Hilger was an elementary school Bully; but not a 21st century bully who makes fun of you on social media and then sends mean texts about you until you cry. He was a classic 20th century “smash-mouth” bully; a hulking monster who lived to intimidate, dominate and physically beat-down anyone and everyone with whom he interacted. He also happened to be the terror of my fifth-grade class at Sedalia Park Elementary school from September of 1970 until May of 1971. Hilger was a dull, sweaty, sandy-haired, thick-lipped, fat-faced and pig-eyed brute who stood a full head above most of his fellow students in Mrs. Watson’s fifth-grade class. According to rumor, his immense size was not a freak of childhood physical development; it was due to his failure to graduate to the next grade in two different years. If “the rumor” was true, then Hilger should have been entering East Cobb junior high school’s seventh grade in the fall of 1970 instead of an elementary school fifth grade. Known to all of us, “the rumor” clearly explained why Hilger outweighed even the largest of his classmates by a good 30%. Unfortunately, in the early 1970’s, the concept of “social promotion” had not yet been invented. Mrs. Watson’s fifth-grade class was left to suffer as a result. Mrs. Watson fully understood that she had a “problem child” in David Hilger. As a VERY strict disciplinarian, she was fully up to the task of controlling him – but only when she was physically present. While physically present, Mrs. Watson employed a unique tool to maintain discipline: a thick metallic thimble which she wore continuously on the middle finger of her right hand. Mrs. Watson needed no ruler to slap on the backs of hands - she had her own equivalent of brass knuckles. At the first sign of back-talk or physical disobedience, she would thump an offender on the skull with a quick flick and THUMP of her weighted middle finger. In addressing Mrs. Watson directly, we called her “Mrs. Watson” or “ma’am”. In addressing her to each other, we called her “Flicky Fingers Watson”, or just “Flicky Fingers” for short. None of the boys in our class avoided a head thumping and the associated aching knot-on-the-head, and on occasion one of the girls would even receive her own most satisfactory head-thumping. Hilger undoubtedly received more than a token number of head-thumpings. Unlike most of the rest of us most of the time, David Hilger richly deserved (by commonly held opinion) each and every one of HIS head-thumpings. It didn’t take very long into the school year for Hilger to develop workarounds that would allow him to harass and intimidate his classmates despite the oversight of Flicky Fingers Watson. He wasn’t the smartest bulb in the hall, but he was devious. He quickly realized that he had full run of the classroom when Flicky Fingers stepped out - as long as he did not make any noise that could be heard over the classroom microphone / speaker box which was installed on the wall over the chalkboard. Hilger also understood (and took full advantage of) the concept of “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” by waiting for Flicky Fingers to turn her back before mounting a quick and quiet blitzkrieg-like attack on a classmate. He also recognized that “distance provides opportunity”, so he would lurk in the corners of the playground during Recess like a spider waiting for some unsuspecting poor soul to wander into his web. The standard intimidation and harassment tactics of the “Bully” were both annoying and infuriating. Here are a few examples of Hilger’s attacks: • If you sat in front of him, spit wads would inevitably bounce off the back of your head. Of course, this universal bullying “trick-of-the-trade” tactic has existed since the dawn of humanity. Or, at least, since the dawn of paper production. • If you sat next to him, he would reach over and snatch at your paper while you were writing on it. Then you had no choice but to scowl, erase and re-write. If you weren’t VERY careful, he would create a second “do-over” by re-snatching your paper while you were re-writing from the first snatch. What fun! • When he walked up the aisle to hand in a piece of paper, he would slap you in the back of the head with his free hand as he passed your seat. • When he returned to his seat, he would “accidentally” sweep your pencil(s) or book(s) off your desk. • If you were walking in front of him, he would step on the back of your shoe and administer what we called a “flat tire”. If you immunized yourself from flat tires by wearing high-top tennis shoes, he would try to sweep-kick your feet together to trip you up. • If you were walking behind him, he would suddenly stop and back into you. He seemed to especially like doing this to the female classmates. • If he was standing in line behind you at the pencil sharpener, he would reach over your shoulder and snap your pencil off after you inserted it in the sharpener. If he had the time and opportunity, he would push you out of the way and vigorously grind your pencil down to a useless nub, then remove it, break the lead, and smile as he handed it back to you. • If you were washing your hands at the sink, he would grab the plastic squeeze bottle of liquid soap and “accidentally” squirt the soap on your clothing. • After rinsing his hands, and before drying them, he would flick the water off them in your face. I grudgingly give him a small amount of credit for NOT doing anything similar with urine. • If you were using a stall in the bathroom to urinate and failed to latch the door behind you, he would walk past and bounce the door off your back. The goal was simple: knock you off balance and make you “piss on yourself”. • In the cafeteria, he would alternate between snatching your food from your plate and spoiling your food (for example, by pouring your chocolate milk on your mashed potatoes or flinging something nasty on your plate). • If you had the misfortune to be assigned as his “buddy” to take the chalkboard erasers outside and beat the chalk out of them, he would inevitably beat the chalk out of the erasers on your body. Or he would simply hurl the erasers at you and laugh at the chalk marks on you as the chalk dust cloud drifted away. If there was enough chalk left in the erasers, he would pound curse words (sometimes misspelled) onto the red brick exterior walls of the school building. He took care to avoid being caught at this by teachers or school administrators; furthermore, it was a given that tattling would be severely punished. • On the playground, he cheated at every game he played. If someone caught his kicked kickball in the air out of bounds, then he was NOT out and got a do-over. When playing soccer, it was legal for him to use his closed fist to knock the ball down. If you didn’t like it, he would use his closed fist to knock YOU down. • If you made the mistake of bringing a favored item from home (e.g., matchbox car, pocket magnifier, compass, cracker jack box toy, etc.), it would magically and irrevocably become “his”. • No line was too short for him to forgo cutting in front of others. No front-row seat was “already taken” when he showed up. • Interestingly, I don’t remember David Hilger being a lunch money extortionist. I think he recognized that crossing the lunch money extortion line was going to bring down too much heat from the authorities. But that’s the ONLY universal bullying tactic I don’t recall him employing. Hilger also had his own unique “specialty” bullying tactic: Fire. He was a cigarette smoker, and ALWAYS carried around a butane lighter and stolen cigarettes in his pockets. He would squirt butane into his closed fist, then open his fist and light the butane. Then he would wave his hand in the face of anyone in proximity (as if seeking to set them on fire) until the butane burned off. Like his “accidental back-up” tactic, this one was most often used against females. Why? Because it truly scared the girls and made them squeal, while we boys just thought it looked “neat” (while we also secretly hoped Hilger would sustain serious burns). One fine spring morning, the Bully even tried his butane lighter trick on a painter who was busy outside the classroom windows while Flicky Fingers was taking one of her sabbaticals from the classroom. Hilger lit his hand and stuck it out the open transom window next to painter. Without a word and without batting an eye, the painter instantly slapped a full coat of paint on Hilger’s open hand to extinguish the flames - and then casually resumed his painting duties. I expected Hilger to become enraged and attack the painter (as he would have done to one of his classmates), but he just...Expand for more