Had a paper route when I was a kid and had one of the double bags that carried papers front/back and left it on the corner due to how heavy it was. Came back and it was gone. Neighborhood dick was across the street with it. Went over, punched him in the face, grabbed my bag and continued on my route. Never had another issue with him.
We had some asians move into the neighborhood below us — we were up a big hill, in a separate neighborhood. There had been a pathway to 3 different schools across that property.
I came across a tree that had been cut down and set across the pathway to block it. The kids in my neighborhood were helping me to clear it, saying such things as “who the hell did this” followed by “who the hell cares?”
Just then a chinese adolescent confronts us kids. We didn’t know what to make of it, we found my older brother whom I had thought to look for protection from bullying violence. But I didn’t realize he was a bullshiitting pacifist.
The chinese wimp pulls out some nunchuks, whips them around in impressive fashion, asks my muscular older brother, “when you wanna fight, huh?” My brother goes into ‘we can work this out’ mode, pulls off.
The only person this affected was me. All those other kids were going to the local junior high, which was further away, no longer walking distance.
I did not realize this but it was a big opportunity. But that is one of those opportunities God gives you knowing that you’ll never see it, rather than showing us how to see the opportunity and then giving it to us. God kinda has a cruel streak in that way.