Bullying has always been around

We’re hearing a lot about bullying lately. One article read, "Bullying Can’t Be Tolerated."

It’s not new. I remember being bullied in school. Kids called us Wiggle worms because there were so many of us Wiggins. Also because of the way we dressed - we didn’thave money for storebought clothes and wore lots of hand-me-downs. And Papa always had Mom cut our hair real short with bangs. Girls with long curly hair would tell me they didn’t want to play with me on the school ground. I found other girls that were not popular - poor,or countrified like me - to be my friends.

Brother Verne tells about being bullied. "I was only four, in kindergarten (when I started school in Nebraska.) I was very small for my age. Walking home, a boy named Leon brought fear to my life. One evening Leon ran with another boy and caught up with me. They led me to a vacant lot right on Main Street where men were working on a high platform, probably repairing electrical needs, and Leon told me that the men were getting things ready to hang me. I began to cry and bawled, begging him to let me go. After a few minutes, seemed like a half an hour at least, Leon shoved me and said, ‘We’ll get you later, now go on home.’ From that day on I never walked by that vacant lot again. The next day he tried to make it up with me and invited me to his home to see his new puppy. As Leon opened the door to his house he ran in to gather up his pup, a man was at the kitchen sink, shaving, and I recognized him as one that was working on the platform in the vacant lot. I wheeled around and didn’t quit running for the longest time.

"On another occasion, while walking home from school, Leon and another boy caught up with me and told me to stand right there by a light post while he got the gang. I bawled for a while as I obeyed. An old gentleman came by and I blared out my story to him, bawling all the time. He wasvery tender and kind and said, ‘You come with me and I won’t let anyone hurt you.’ As he held my hand, I looked back and saw the gang coming. I gripped hard to the hand that held me. He led me to a little grocery store and gave me a penny and said, ‘Go in and get yourself a sucker.’ I bought a sucker and went on home licking away. That’s the last time I remember anything of Leon."

Sister Gay also told of a time she felt threatened. "Papa had decided public school was not a good influence on his children so he removed us from Southwest City, Mo., to go to the Holiness Bible School in Gravette. He also decided since he paid taxes like everyone else we should have the same rights to ride the public school buses. He had to fight to get those rights and we received our ride to Gravette on the public school bus. When it arrived at the school, we would get off and walk on to the Holiness Bible School.

"Well the bus driver wasn’t happy about it either, but no one would cross my Pop, so he let the kids do as they pleased with us.And the belt line was one of those things. The public school boys would take off their belts, and as we got off the bus we had to go through their line with them striking us. Sister Betty later told me, ‘Us older kids would put you and Joy in back and surround you so you wouldn’t get hit.’ We told Miss Davis they called us Holy Rollers. She said, ‘Just tell them I would rather be Holy Rollers than Hell Rollers.’

"Years later a man told me, ‘A few years back I ran into your brother. I looked over and saw this 200-plus pound, 6-foot man that had told me he was going to beat me to a pulp if he ever saw me. But instead when he saw me, we ended up laughing about old times."

Sixty years later I can still remember the rejection I felt from bullying. But I can also recall those youngsters that were kind to me in spite of my difference.