Easter. Usually a time when I try to make it up to see my family. Since the mid-80's when my mother married my stepfather, the Peters Hollow Egg Fight has been a family tradition.
For the record, the Egg Fight does not involve throwing eggs.
It started maybe 150 years ago, when the farmers of Rome Hollow and the farmers of Peters Hollow began arguing over whose chickens laid the hardest eggs. It has evolved into a regular EVENT, with two children's divisions and an adult division. Each entrant may have up to six dozen chicken eggs (other fowl eggs will have you disqualified for Cheating, which is Frowned Upon). Everyone sits in circle, with the first person tapping the end of his egg against the end of the person sitting next to him. It goes around the circle like that until all but one person has broken both ends of all their eggs.
This has nothing to do with my story, actually. I just felt the need to explain. My papa has one severla times and placed several times as well. His last name is Peters. It is a Big Deal. He raises his own chickens, and all year long he keeps an eye on which hens lay the hardest eggs.
We went up a little early, and our friend Nash, Having nowhere else to go, came with us. We took our bikjes and hit a few bike trails while we were up there. That was nice.
What wasn't so nice was that the rental house up the hill from my folks place has new renters. They have kids. Two of their kids were coming over every day. Early. Calling out for my niece and sons to come play. But their idea of play, is to Fight. The seven year old greeted my husband with "Wanna fight?" He grabbed Robert and threw him down, even when Robert said he didn't want to fight. Melody, 10, (known to WenchCon attendees as the Legolass) then threw the little punk down, and sent him crying to his mommy. *sigh*
This kid bragged about being a bully, and said things to Robert (6) like "I bet you're glad you don't go to MY school" etc.
So, mostly my boys stayed in when weren't out biking, or visiting family and friends.
So when we're loading up to leave, this little jerk is throwing a basketball at Nash's head. Nash finally threw the ball back into the kid's yard. Then the kid started punching Nash. Nash ignored him, then told him to stop several times. Finally, he did an Aikido move on him-- where you just kind of grab the fist that's punching you and step out of the way, using the attacker's momentum to land them on their back. Then he put a hand on his sternum to hold him while he said, " Listen you littlke MF, Hit me again and I'll pop your brains out your eyes" or something similarly colorful.
Now, Nash is in his 40s, and you'd think he'd know better, but that kid had sent my kids home crying, and actually tried to beat on my husband and Nash all week. I admit that, though I did not witness it, I was amused by the story. I came out just after that, and we got in the truck and left (they were waiting on me to say my goodbyes to my mother).
Ten minutes later my sister calls me on the cell phone, saying the woman next door (who might not have existed for I'd seen of her supervising her kids this week), was fussing and calling the sheriff's dept.
We went back, feeling that was the right thing to do. When I heard the story of what happened, I had been surprised that the parents had not called the law or something, but the only reason they had not was because it had JUST happened when we left.
The deputy came. Then the father came home after having been fishing or something all day. He's swaggering around with a big knife on his belt, saying, "I'll fight you! You wanna fight me?" and generally being the posterchild for ignorant rednecks with acute testosterone poisoning. He demanded that Nash be arrested, but the deputy wouldn't do it, and told us to go NOW.
So we went.
In short, I want to buy that stupid rental house and bulldoze it, because there have only been two decent neighbors there in 20 year's time. Several people with neglected children, a few with nasty attack dogs that ended up being shot by animal control AND my stepfather (AFTER they attacked my poor mom...). People who play loud salsa music at 3am on school nights...
I have never been so embarrassed to see such a display of every Appalachian cliche. *hides face*
I swear, there are people there who aren't like that, they're just quieter.
Nash is very scary looking. He's actually a pacifist-- just a pacifist who can break bones with his bare hands, etc. I'm sure the poor kid was wetting his pants. Nash should have known better. It WAS shocking, what he did. If I had known that was going on, I would have gone over and talked to his mom, or something. Done bun can't be undone, as they say.
Oh, and here is an article on the Egg Fight. My stepniece won this year. Her daughter and my other niece both came in second in the their divisions, too.
posted
So this was a 7-yr old throwing a ball at an adult's head and punching him? And they call the police to show the world what crappy parents they are?
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
The single comment that made the entire thing seem surreal and absurd... The boy's father repeated what Nash had said to the boy, then said, "What kind of sick f-k says S-t like that to a little kid! On Easter !" Like it would have been more apropriate on Halloween?
*snort*
I laughed, safely hidden in the laundry room of my parents' house. That was after the second time the boy's dad came out (after the deputy told him to inside his house) with his wife shouting , "No! Don't!" In a way that made me think he might have actually had a firearm of some sort. It was bizarre and scary at the time, but it's funny now. Like a wildlife documentary on rednecks.
"Note the male's reddened cheeks, indicating his inebriation and marking him as particularly agressive..."
quote: Everyone sits in circle, with the first person tapping the end of his egg against the end of the person sitting next to him.
I have to say, the first time I read this, I thought people were tapping their eggs on the butt of the person next to them.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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