OH LAWD chapter 7

Leave the Kid Alone
 

I had made me some new friends but most were adults like Noonan and Paddy.  Now I was finding it harder to spend time with them as I was getting ready for the new school year.

I went to the gym often with Paddy, and was learning how to use the different punching bags.

Paddy would spar with me, mostly playing around and once in a while he would show me what it was like to be hit and experience pain.

I began to see a vast difference in punching a bag and having an opponent who would hit back.

It seemed several guys in the gym wanted to teach me a lesson about the art of manly defense. They were always trying to get me in the ring while promising NOT to hit me very hard.  

 

After being knocked on my backside a few times, I was to them, little more than a bag that needed punching.

Paddy finally stepped up and told them to knock it off.

One of the up and coming young boxers invited Paddy to step up and replace me. Paddy tried to ignore him but he wouldn't stop until Paddy changed his shoes and put on his gloves.

He stood a head taller than Paddy and was chomping at the bit to knock Paddy around like he had done to me. To make a long story shorter, thirty seconds later they were trying to revive the young boxer and he was wondering what happened.

His manager said that boy needed to be shown a thing or two, and he had a lot to learn about the art of pugilism, and he thanked Paddy for not doing permanent damage to him.

I stood amazed for the guy was much bigger than Paddy and he didn't last but a few seconds with him.

As we went home I walked proudly alongside of Paddy and asked why he quit boxing.

He said you need to know when "Enough is enough," and that applies to all arenas of life.

As I thought about that I concluded that I was still too young to have reached the level of "Enough" concerning anything.

Iroquois Warrior courtesy photobucket

That morning Noonan had began to tell Marly and me about when he became an Indian. 

By this time we knew it was going to be just a wild story that he made up, but we were all ears and excited that he was going to take us right into the Indian world.

He began, “I was just three years old when I was stolen from my parents by the Iroquois tribe.

 

They took me up into Canada and one of the prominent women claimed me for her own for she had no children. She called me Fawndoe. I asked what that meant for names were important. She said, it means Little Deer. When I got older I told her I didn't like that name and she said you can change it anytime you want.

I made friends with the other boys in camp and they taught me all about hunting and fishing for they were the two most important things about the Indian life style.

We would trade our pelts for things we needed and life was simple on one hand and difficult on the other for we didn't have any medical care.

For the most part it was stay healthy or pass on. Our three main enemies were sickness, wolves and bears. Our tribe lived near the border between the USA and Canada.

 

Sometimes we were in Canada and sometimes not. We didn't see any line drawn in the dirt saying where we were suppose to be.

We never thought of our selves as either American or Canadian but just being an Iroquois that was what mattered.

The Mounties pretty well left us alone unless some trouble was brewing between our tribes.

I finally changed my name from Fawndoe to Fawndo.”

Oh Lawd!   

 

To be continued.