<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Rudyard K @ Mar 31 2009, 08:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>
Interesting. I agree with what your Pop proffered.

When I was a kid growing up it seems like we fought a lot more than my kids did growing up. When my boys were in high school I&#39;d hear them say they were going to whup somebody&#39;s ass about something. I used to ask them, "Have you ever really been in a fight? I mean a real fight...fist-t-cuffs...swinging to take their head off fight?" They would look at me and say "no". I&#39;d tell &#39;em that they need to get in a couple. Then they would learn that even if you win a fight, you very seldom come out of it unscathed. And they are no fun. And the thrill of victory is not near as great as the pain of nursing those wounds. There, of course, is a time to fight. But when it is upon you, you don&#39;t need to talk about it...you walk right up to them and smack them in the nose...and then get ready.

I don&#39;t know if they took what I said to heart...but they didn&#39;t really get into many fights...if any.[/b]
It&#39;s a different world, RK, then when we were coming up. Back in the day, you duked it out & that was pretty much the end of it. It wasn&#39;t unusual for those you threw down with to end up becoming your best friends... probably because you knew from jump exactly how far you could push each other before it got ugly.

Our kids are growing up in a world where damn near everybody they run into is strapped.

I&#39;ve had to add that as a corollary to Pop&#39;s rules. As in,

"FIRST, figure out if the guy running his mouth is packing. If he is... take the loss. A good run is better than a bad stand any day!! If not, THEN.... for every 10 guys...."