Love and Fisticuffs

Dennis and I often fought, physically, as well as verbally. The older we got the worse it got. I don’t think we hated each other. Perhaps it was a natural thing between brothers growing up. In any case, we did, though we didn’t actually attempt to physically harm one another – more like testing each other’s defenses. My group of close friends fought each other occasionally – Bob, Larry, and Scott. Reggie (Bob’s younger brother) was a few years younger and smaller, so he was exempt. Larry and Scott fought the most because they were brothers. No one (except myself) dared to fight with Dennis because he was older and bigger than all of us. I dared to because Dennis would get into serious trouble for beating up on his younger and smaller brother.

None of us intended to seriously harm anyone – it was more for show than anything. Occasionally someone would get injured, though nobody died or ended up in the hospital as a result.

We would have never described our relationship as friends using the word “love”, but in retrospect I would say that we loved each other a lot. We shared a significant portion of our growing-up years with each other, and trusted each other deeply.