My Bodyguard, from Author Ben Bryant’s First Entertainment Book

• Posted on 6th October 2015
• in Entertainment, entertainment books
• by Ben

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Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of my

entertainment book

Three Stages: Bristol, Tennessee circa 1943. I’ve never seen the movie My Bodyguard but I got my own when I was ten or eleven.

“The next strong memory I have of grammar school is Timmy Roach. The Bully. That kid beat me up nearly every day of the second and/or third grade. I was a chubby kid with zero self defense and athletic skills at that stage of my development and an easy mark for Timmy and his gang of youthful thugs. The worst part of that deal was that, in her naiveté, Lucy [my mom] didn’t believe boys would gang up on me if I hadn’t provoked them in some way. So I’d get stomped on the way home then face a switching for starting a fight. These whippings were the only ones I ever got that seemed unfair. Many years later she apologized profusely for not believing me but that was small solace. Bish [my dad] had never taught me to protect or defend myself so I just took Timmy’s beatings. I tried to avoid him, taking increasingly circuitous routes to and from school, and sometimes it worked. One day at recess I saw him coming and one of my classmates (I wish I could remember who) told me to hit him. Strange as it seems now that idea had not occurred to me. He strutted up to me, prepared to take a swing and I doubled up my fist and popped him right on the nose. What a difference one blow can make! Blood gushed, Timmy cried, I was “kept after school” for fighting but the Roach reign of terror ceased.

“Church and school were not separated in the 1940’s South as they are today so we had bible classes and daily prayer in schools then. Why not? Everyone was a Christian even though many didn’t behave as such. My next tormentor bully, whose name I have forgotten, showed up in the fourth or fifth grade. I remember being thoroughly confused by his first attack, which came right after bible class one day. This kid had sat next to me and read the bible and prayed. Then ten minutes later, at recess, he “jumped on” me. That’s what we called it then: he jumped on me. My minimal fighting skills which had worked so well with Timmy Roach were no match for this boy. Enter my bodyguard, Wilbert Snead! Wilbert was seventeen in the fifth grade. You couldn’t quit school until you were eighteen [nor were you promoted until you actually passed] which explains Wilbert’s seniority in grade five. This was my good luck.

“He was always looking for a fight so taking me under his wing as an excuse was perfect for him. Whenever this new assailant attacked, Wilbert was there in a flash and made short work of my adversary. Word got around and I was soon left alone. The main thing I remember about Wilbert, other than his personal security function, was his size which was big and his proclivity for whipping out his pecker (which was also big, or seemed so at the time) and waving it at anyone in his vicinity.”

Lots more strange and funny adventures will be found in my entertainment books. Click here to get Three Stages.