• Home
  • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
  • Contact

JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Another foolhardy law-enforcement pursuit; another innocent person dead
With the Gannett-GateHouse merger, where does McClatchy go? »

October 9, 2019 by jimmycsays

Until about the fifth grade, I was a bully. I would punch classmates if they did something that irritated me, like one kid, Wally Clifford, who peed on a ruler and wiped it on my shirt in the boys’ restroom.

I tagged him with a roundhouse right, and I’ll never forget the shocked look on his face, even as he maintained a goofy, frozen smile.

But then one day on the playground I got into it with a heavyset kid named Russell Armstrong, and Russell put me in my place — and kept me there — by sitting on my chest. I realized then that I was not invulnerable, and it dawned on me that I’d better retire from fisticuffs before I took a really good beating.

I lost one more schoolyard fight before I quit altogether and became an inveterate coward.

Later, in all the years I spent in the bars as a bachelor — didn’t get married ’til I was a week shy of 39 — I can’t ever recall being in a bar when a big fight broke out. I saw a couple of guys get kicked out of bars for minor stuff, but I never saw any confrontation that I suspected would lead to somebody returning and trying to take revenge. At the same time, I was always vigilant about what was going on around me and tried to be attuned to any signs of barroom trouble.

Now you know where I’m going with this personal history…I’m pretty sure that even back in my single days, I would have left a bar immediately if I had witnessed a confrontation that resulted in someone threatening to return while getting thrown out.

And while it’s implausible that I would have been in Tequila KC on Central Avenue last Saturday night, if I had been…if I had been, I would have been gone in 10 seconds after seeing a guy throw cups and bottles at a bartender and hearing him threaten to return as he was escorted out.

(Moreover, if I had been in any bar where a guy looking as menacing as Hugo Villanueva-Morales does in his mug shot, I think that would have been enough to send me running for the door.)

I also would have been gone the afternoon or evening of Feb. 22, 2017, after Adam Purinton was kicked out of Austin’s Bar & Grill in Olathe after yelling racial slurs at Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani. Purinton came back with a gun later and killed Kuchibhotla and wounded Madasani and a man who had come to their aid.

I’m not saying I would have left those bars because I was smarter than those who didn’t leave; I just have a finely honed sense of self-preservation. Some might call it paranoia, but whatever it is, it has served me pretty well. So far, anyway.

I seldom go to bars any more. Oddly, though, after the symphony last Friday night, we went to the bar at Grunauer’s restaurant in the Freight House area. We had eaten dinner there with several other people before the performance and had left a car in the lot. We weren’t quite ready to wrap up the night when we got back to Grunauer, so we popped in there for a while.

It was distractingly loud because of blaring, teeth gratingly bad music, but it was safe — a lot safer than it was about 24 hours later across the state line at 10th and Central.

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

8 Responses

  1. on October 9, 2019 at 5:37 am Kaler Bole

    You matured and saw the bigger picture in several key aspects of life.  You and I could each name several acquaintances who never changed and continue to suffer.


    • on October 9, 2019 at 10:30 am jimmycsays

      Luck is at least as big a factor as maturation.


  2. on October 9, 2019 at 8:12 am Tracy Thomas

    Love this one, Fitz. As for editing, I would suggest but one. Delete “either smacked or”, because it weakens the story. You’re not “reporting”, you are illustrating your point, so if YOU can’t verify, then choose the more powerful one that accomplishes the goal, and move on. You slugged the guy.

    Also loved the double use of “if I HAD been”!! Brilliant writing. Drives it home. Reminds me of Howard Goller’s style, and his signature way of starting a sentence. “So xxxxxxxx was he, that yyyyyyyyyyy.”

    Warm memories of our days drinking in the back room of the New Stanley in the 70’s. When Westport was safe. When Kramer never tossed anyone out, and if he did, didn’t matter cuz WE, the STAR reporters plus one devotee learning her craft in PR and making friends with people who loved this town, (me) were all safely in the back room, drinking hard and unwinding. The citizen drinkers were all in the front room, where last call was 12:30, last and final. Whereas you and OJ and Casey and Haskins and Dauner and so many of Casey’s hires and mentees were just arriving at 12:35am, when the Kansas City TIMES had gone to press. So you all were allowed to order drinks till 12:55am, the “last call for the TIMES”.

    Indeed.

    One final question: what the hell does that headline mean?


    • on October 9, 2019 at 10:30 am jimmycsays

      — I spent a lot of time in the front room, too, Tracy. That’s where the vast majority of the women were.

      — Took your advice on the wording suggestion.

      — I didn’t put a headline on this one; I don’t know what the readers saw.


      • on October 9, 2019 at 6:54 pm gayle

        Tracy must have her own special, secret version. I don’t see a headline, either.


      • on October 9, 2019 at 8:31 pm John Altevogt

        Fitz, if you got notice of this column by email, google entitled it “20572”.


  3. on October 9, 2019 at 9:52 am altevogt

    Unfortunately, firearms are illegal in bars in Kansas or honest citizens might have been able to send these KCMO ruffians packing.

    I eat in that area quite often, Every time I have a Landmark Commission meeting I go down to El Toritos at 13th and Central for supper. This time it was blocked off so I went to Hamburgesa Los Compas at 305 North 7th for supper and I felt as safe as you did over by Grunauers.

    Drive through the Argentine or the area of downtown around city hall an to the south. Hispanics have cleaned those areas up. Those that own their own homes doll them up with fancy porches and maintain them with flowers and well manicured yards. And, if you drive around during the evening you’ll often see a large group celebrating a birthday or some other family event, peacefully engaging in activities long gone to most highly mobile Eurocentric Americans.

    Thanks to friends in that community I am often invited to these events and even though I don’t speak a word of Spanish outside of “Grande, por favor” I have never felt uncomfortable being there, going there, or coming home.

    As we’ve seen lately, that shooting could have happened anywhere, but it has absolutely zero to do with the safety of the Central Avenue neighborhood. I will go there anytime you want and walk down the street with you and I will not fear any violence.


  4. on October 9, 2019 at 7:51 pm jimmycsays

    Gayle — Good to know. I couldn’t think of an appropriate headline, so I just let it go.



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About me: Jim Fitzpatrick
    • Contact
  • Archives

    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 563 other subscribers

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


  • Follow Following
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Join 563 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: