Is 42 to old for...

[Blazin]

Getting into a bar fight?

Was at my local hang out last Sat. night, friends of mine were playing there. Having a drink or two, catching up with a woman I went to school with, and hadn't seen in 16 plus years. I'm good friends with the bar tender, her sister and brother in law own the place. Its usually pretty mellow, even if things get a little tense its usually ended quick, and quietly.
I see the owner asking these two guys to lay off the drunk married woman on the dance floor as her husband was getting upset. They were giving him guff. He asked them to leave. That's when their 5 buddies decided they were going to get involved. I went over to stand with him. They all went down the stairs and outside. The seven guys, the owner, his wife, their son who works in the kitchen, the bar tender, me and one other paytron / friend. Outside it turns into a mess. Three scuffles, us trying to keep things as non violent as possible. 
Fourth scuffle this guy attacked the owner. I tried to break it up. They go down into the back of a pickup truck, the guy gets a trailer hitch into the ribs. Then I get pushed face down in the gavel, and punched in the back of the head. That's when I got ugly. I came up swingin. Rolled myself over, side kicked a guy in the face. Got to my knees, and the guy that pushed me down, and hit me was laying face up in front of me. Lets just say his face got in the way of my fist a bunch of times!
Then all settled, waiting for the cops to show up. We all went back inside. Cops and ambulance came. They treated the guy I hit for broken nose, and eye socket bones. the guy that caught the trailer hitch got lugged to the hospital with a bunch of broken ribs, and a punctured lung!
Me, well I waited till Monday. Went to the ER, I have 4th Metacarpel fracture, and 5th Metacarpel broken in my right hand!
Cops reviewed the tapes from the security cameras, said we are all good. We did everything we could to keep it from escalating. Said they defiantly started it.

[fitz]

Not if you win.
Always have to step in to help friends & family.

[Stewart G Griffin]

i would say 42 is too old to be going to places like that in the first place.   There are better alternatives.

[VileZambonie]

Blazin,

You are well within your means to defend yourself or protect the innocent and you're never too old to go out and have fun with your friends. Unfortunately people lose their self control easily with alcohol so you always have to be prepared for the worst. You may remember I did the same a few years ago and got stabbed? I was just there to give a drunk a safe ride home and ended up giving myself a ride to the Hospital. Luckily the injuries weren't worse for you guys but broken ribs are awful and puncturing a lung on top of it really sucks.

[Blazin]

Well him, and his buddies started it, they reap what they sow!

So Stewart at what age is one supposed to stop going out for a drink, have some of the best food around, dance, maybe shoot pool, or some darts, and listen to their friend's band play classic rock? Not to mention I work the door at another place in town thast more a sports bar a friend of mine owns once in a while on busy weekends. So I am no stranger to dealing with idiots after they have had a few to many!
 
Just so its clear I am not a drinker, or a drunk. When I go out once a week, on occasion twice if the bands are good, allot of the time I will drink water, or iced tea. If I do drink its one or two, unless someone else is driving, and even then 4 drinks would be about it.

A place like that? Whats that supossed to mean?
Its an inn. They have a lovely restaurant, Japanese, Italian, and a nice tavern upstairs.  People in there all the time from 21, to 91.
Like I said never usually any major problems, once in a while there will be a couple idiots that push each other around, or trade a punch each. It always gets stopped right off.
These seven guys showed up there looking for trouble. They hadn't been there 20 minutes and were being asked to leave.

[Cabcorner]

                              Is 42 too old to get in a bar fight ? Apparently not , but there's nothing you can do about it now. You stood up for for your friends and tried to keep it from getting out of control , I admire  that . Too many would not have gotten involved . It could have ended much worse if you were not there .

[Blazin]

Yeah that's the other thing. About 30 people, mostly men went came out behind us. Only one other beside myself stepped up to do the right thing. All the rest did the heavy onlooking, then ran their mouths about what they did, or what they would have done for the rest of the night!

I was raised to stand up for the right reasons. My father always told me.
" Boy, you better ever not start a fight, but if it comes down to you being in one if you can't avoid it. you darn well better be the one to finish it ".
Took me a few years to take this to heart.

My mother was a police officer, I grew up being bullied by older kids, or groups of kids. I took allot of crap. It made me a stronger person, both mentally, and physically. I learned to block out pain, physical, and emotional. I can remember watching other kids, even older ones stand by, and doing nothing when I was being beat up in elementary school by several middle school, or high schoolers. At some point I decided to fight back, and win when I did. I figured what the heck. I got in trouble from teachers, etc. if I got beat up, I might as well fight back. I was going to get penalized either way! That decision change me for the rest of my life. I will never until I can't physically, stand by, and watch an unfair fight in my life ever. Or stand by and watch a bully, or group of bullies try, and do or take what they want. Even if it means in the end having an injury to myself.
Not the first time I have gotten involved in this type of situation. Its been a few years since anything got this out of control. Usually it ends quieter, and with less violence.
Funny thing about most bullies. If you stand up to them, they will back down!

[thirsty]

You did the right thing. Because I know that you are a nonviolent person, I also know how much of a man you are to put yourself in a violent situation like that. If you had it to do all over again I know you would man up and be there for your friends again.

I try real hard to avoid situations like that. I grew up in a rough area during a rough time. If you went out and ran your mouth you could plan on getting your butt kicked. I had a lot of large friends that enjoyed it when somebody ran their mouth looking for a fight. Me, not so much...lol. Many more times than I wanted I was forced into bad situations because of the company that I kept. I was always the smallest guy there so I was the guy that most of them wanted to fight with. Lucky me huh? It didn't take me long to figure out that getting beat sucks and I probably wasn't going to walk away if I just went outside and put up my dukes if I had too. I also knew never to back down from anybody though. So things changed with me. I would do everything possible not to get into a real fight with someone. I also made it perfectly clear that it would not be as straight forward as kicking my a**, you might get hurt real bad because I have no intention of getting my a** kicked tonight. I used to like to end fights about a second before they started. (Not with knives or guns or anything like that) I have felt plenty guilty for hurting people that thought it would be fun and easy to whomp up on me just because they thought they could. I also have ended up in court over it before too. When I became a dad I didn't change but I would usually leave the situation just in case and consider it a favor to the other guy. Sometimes though you have no choice with some people and those are the people that deserve what they get and hopefully learn from it. Why I said that you were a man for putting yourself in a violent situation wasn't because I thought you were afraid. I know that isn't true. More because I can relate to having to do it when it was the last thing on your mind that night.

Good for you for showing the bullies that they cannot push people around without consequences.

[bd]

Blazin, it takes real courage to manifest personal character and maintain your integrity in spite of potential consequences or personal loss.  You managed to achieve both!  You offered them every opportunity to back away and they refused.  Their loss - literally - too bad.  Cowards run in groups - they need to, to validate and fuel one another's ill will.  Perhaps one or more of them have learned some humility and will think twice in the future.

It's obvious that you don't look for trouble.  There is no one right answer to your question.  Every 'situation' encountered has to be evaluated in and of itself.  When is it time to stop living?  NEVER!  Kudos to you for standing your ground!

[Cali-Deuce]

Interesting... I hope those guys don't return with a lawyer.

[Blazin]

Cops watched the video tapes from all the cameras when they showed up. They have the whole place inside, and out set up with about 20 cameras. They said we have nothing to worry about. Said we tried everything we could to make them leave without being violent.

Found out today the guy I was swingin on got his but handed to him a few moths ago too.  Him, and his brother started some crap at a local private residence, friend of his sons family's place.

[bobcooter]

Your never too old to get in a bar fight. I don't recommend it though.

[p7387]

as i have gotten older, with each year that passes i have learned/try not to get agitated over unnecessary BS reasoning that there are plenty of people out there that will get in your face and force you to become agitated, sounds like this was one of those times for you. when your back is up against the wall and your hand is forced you usually "do what you need to do" i don't think there can be an age limit set on that.

my old man always used to say....
"better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a lamb"

just curious, how old were those other guys?

[Blazin]

Not positive on the ages. The youngest was 21 / 22ish, oldest was 34.

[p7387]

i figured as much.......