Have you ever bit off more than you could chew ?

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leftywoody

Member
Aug 23, 2008
405
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Lagrange Indiana
1965 , when I was about 13 or 14 years old, we had sheep on our small homestead that we raised for 4-H and also sold wool . I had found out from my younger brother that our neighbor boy had stolen one of our sheep and took it home to his dad and they butchered it . That whole family was raised pretty rough, yet we treated them as good neighbors and friends . He came across the field one day to play with us and I told him to leave and not come back for stealing from us . He proceeded to clean my clock with about 2 jabs and an upper cut . Poor old me didn't expect that . Any way I learned that day, not to come to a fist fight with just a bunch of words and my hands in my pockets . Any of you ever start something that backfired on you ?
 

2door

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 15, 2008
16,302
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Littleton, Colorado
Lefty,
I'm going to have to give this one some thought... There was a day north of the DMZ that gave me reason to wish I was elsewhere...but that sounds too much like a war story and I won't get into that here. Let me think a bit.
Tom
 

Elmo

New Member
Sep 3, 2009
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Mississippi
Lefty
One time when I was 16 I got into it with one of my friends. To make a long story short as we were squareing off I pulled my jacket off like the guys in the movies. When I had it about halfway off withboth arms trapped he nailed me on my ear with a hard right. It hurt for weeks. Learned a lesson, try to get the first punch in yourself.
Elmo
 

leftywoody

Member
Aug 23, 2008
405
0
16
Lagrange Indiana
Yes the 3 wives count . I was just curious about the range of stories that this thread might intale . It could be anything from thinking you could ride a horse like Zorro , or wagering on a game and thinking your wife wouldn't care . Or how about standing up to your mom for the first time ?
 

moonerdizzle

New Member
Jun 28, 2009
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Cheese head capitol
Yes the 3 wives count . I was just curious about the range of stories that this thread might intale . It could be anything from thinking you could ride a horse like Zorro , or wagering on a game and thinking your wife wouldn't care . Or how about standing up to your mom for the first time ?
i dont even want to think about the first time i stood up to my mom, she wooped the crap outa me.
 

Bikeguy Joe

Godfather of Motorized Bicycles
Jan 8, 2008
11,837
252
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up north now
O.K., you asked for it...

One day my brother, a friend of ours and myself were riding around in the friends car.
As we drove by this one house, my bro yells out the window at the biker standing there F-U...)(*&^ **&^% ect.ect.

Said friend floors the car and my bro flips the guy off. I asked what that was all about and my bro tells me (long story short) the guy ripped him off for a bad motorcycle battery. 20 dollars.

About this time the guy comes ripping past us in his car and slams on the brakes. Friend goes around the guy, slams on HIS brakes and stops. I thought I would be billy bad balz and jump out and whoop up on the guy just because it was a sunny day.

As I got close to the car, the guy jumps out and points a .25 peewee gun at me and says %$@#!! and starts shooting!

He unloaded the whole clip, and missed me and the friends car with all but on, which hit friends car, adding only a badge of honor.

By now I was livid and pumping 100% adrenaline and I go to charge the guy, and he calmly drops one clip and in one motion takes a second out of his back pocket and zips it into place.

I stopped in my tracks and the guy had the gun right in my face and says "You want to think again?" I said "Yeah." I turned around and walked back to friends car, waiting for the shots that did not come. They were down in the seats and I just said "Let's go." So we did. Nobody said a word for at least 5 minutes.

I was clearly out classed that day.
 

Finfan

New Member
Aug 29, 2008
871
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Tucson, AZ USA
I'll spare the details since it was the typical teenage BS but I decided I was going to stand up to the bully. I am quite convinced my shoulders hit the ground before my butt did!
 

leftywoody

Member
Aug 23, 2008
405
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16
Lagrange Indiana
I too had the raw courage to stand up to a bully that I knew I could whip . He took my baseball cap and threw it on the ground . I yelled at him for doing it and then his older brother came up and pinned me against the baseball fence . He didn't say much , he didn't have to . What he did say was enough to stop me in my tracks and think about an escape route . He did let me go without tearing me to shreds . That would have been easy for him to do . Oh well I got my cap back and only was somewhat humiliated .
 

Nashville Kat

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2009
1,501
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48
Jacksonville, Florida
I was in the field at Summerville N.J. in 1978 with almost 200 other road cyclists. Summerville was one of my favorite races cause it had a huge crowd every Memorial Day of about 20,000 watching. It was also short and fast at 50 miles, it sorta bridged the gap between being a roadie or trakkie race. I was definitely a roadie and better at hills, but 50 miles started to spread things out, and my only real hope of doing well was maybe getting some kind of small gap right near the finish, or having great position in the field sprint.

It was getting near the finish and I was feeling good and getting more pumped with every flat fast mile lap. I noticed that Jim Ochowicz, a well known trakkie from Kenosha and the Schwinn Wolverines was sitting in on one of my Indy USA teamates and local friends Wayne Stetina. Now Wayne was like the premier road rider in the '70s having won a handful of road titles, and we all knew that he'd probably be trying to get off the front near the finish. I knew that Ochowicz was going to try to spoil any of his breaks, and then as usual would probably lead Roger Young, his brother-in-law and well known match sprinter, out in the sprint from a lap or two from the finish.

So I thought I'd help Wayne get free maybe, and if things got broken up, I'd sit in and counter if any break was caught then later on. So I started getting next to Ochowicz and then simply telling Wayne which side to move to, which cleared his wheel to allow him a clean break with no "enemy" on his wheel. After a couple of times, Ocho got real huffy, and started threatening me to stay away. I sorta got windy back, because I wasn't doing anything but positioning, and you really can't lay a permanent claim to someone's wheel in a bike race, so we were exchanging words. So it was winding down, and a little late for any breaks besides, but I blocked for Wayne again, and don't recall if he ever got off that day. But what did happen- and only three or four laps from the finish, while we were all in great position near the front, really- was that suddenly going through the third of the four corners, Ochowicz came past me from behind and started grabbing at me- I don't know what he really intended, but before I knew it I was going down. But I wasn't going down alone, and I grabbed him as I fell.

So here we are, both down on the pavement in front of a huge pack of winding up racers, just a few short miles from the finish of one of the most important races in at least my own mind (and about 5 or 600 miles from home) So it was real stupid, and almost miraculously no one else hit us or fell. I had some skratches that luckily weren't worse, and after the race Wayne told me that people were coming up to ask him who his "kamikazee teamate" was, which was amusing- but not really true- I was just bike racing, and quite legitimately until it became personal with words.

.flg.

Marathon Man 1977
 

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leftywoody

Member
Aug 23, 2008
405
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16
Lagrange Indiana
Once in 1973 I owned a bike just like the one in the pic . It was a good trail bike and was street legal . With lots of power for the day . I was riding home from town one day and spotted a nice 5 foot , mound of dirt in an open field that would soon become a housing developement . A perfect place to do an Evil Knevil jump . Got a running start , got 3/4 of the way up the mound and chickened out . My front end dropped straight down on the other side of the hill and I rode it like a motorized unicycle for about 10 feet before going face first into the grass. This bike was in next to new condition until then . Bent the handle bars ,headlite mounts ,gas tank and bruised the heck out of me . I drove it home with the bars facing in every direction but straight . And spent another $125.00 to replace the messed up parts . That was more than a weeks pay down the drain .
 

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turtle tedd

Member
Jul 18, 2009
153
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16
florida
jumped my dirt bike over this hill and small stream one time....came back a few weeks later and did the same thing..by the time i saw the stream and hit my brakes it was to late..tuns out it was a saltwater "stream" and the tide was in and high...it was about 10 time wider than it was the first time..landed in the middle right up to my tank