I’ve been watching the “Gunsmoke” series on internet streaming Netflix.  It is a remarkably sensitive and probing series, going into reasonably complex ethical matters.  It’s a great series, and easy to see why it lasted so long.  And it got me to thinking, reminiscing a bit.

One of the recurring features are fights, between all manner of people.  The fights are replete with fists to jaws, fists to abdomens, chairs over the head, bottles over the head, heads smashed into walls, doors and floors, and so on.  These fights last a while, with multiple blows back and forth, simply great rolling, tumbling, stumbling head-smashing contests.

Now, I’ve been in a few of those, and, frankly, lost a few of them.  Not all, and a lot were draws meaning both parties came to their senses before anyone got badly hurt.  I can tell you this; one slam to the head like those guys do will take both people out.  The guy who gets hit solidly in the head with some power behind it is done – head and neck injuries.  He just wants to lay down and find some heavy drugs.  The guy who hits him has hand problems, unless he was using some form of brass knuckles or a slug, but those are very rare and liable to get the possessor killed.

The stomach blows are not quite so serious if someone sees them coming and braces themselves.  A sucker punch to the stomach delivered with some force is absolutely debilitating in the extreme.  The recipient will not be in a mood for some days to argue over so much as the price of a penny candy.   And many fight-winning punches are of the sucker variety.  Once a fight has been declared, the parties rarely get to the door, and kicking, gouging, and scratching are ‘de rigeur’.  Biting is frowned on, but a bite hurts the bitee a lot more than a frown hurts a frownee.

Obviously, glancing blows, off-balance hits, almost hits don’t count in this.  Those do more or less damage, usually less, to either party.

Getting your nose hit is brutal.  That can take you right down to your knees despite whatever else is happening around or to you.   Otherwise a cut on the head will bleed a whole lot as there is a rich blood supply around there.  It will elicit a lot of concern in the onlookers, as the scene starts looking quite grim.  In reality, the head is very bony, and unless the brain is concussed a simple cut or couple of cuts aren’t nearly as serious as they look.

Don’t count on anyone around stopping a fight until it’s run it’s course unless they have some authority.  In the first place they don’t want to get hurt, and there’s very little controlled going on.  And in the second, they sort of enjoy it.

If the fight gets outside, where there is plenty of room, count on a draw unless one of the guys is big enough to grab the other and hold on.  Otherwise the dancing and sparring goes on until both are tired and have had a chance to think over the reason for the altercation and it doesn’t seem so important.  I saw one fight stop when an onlooker said, “Harry, I hear your mother calling you.”  (This was overseas.)  Harry said he thought he’d better go and the other fellow agreed.  They had been at it long enough to sort of “come to”, get out of the injured child mindset that got them into it.

Ah, memories.  And lessons.