THE CAT FIGHT

On a balmy Saturday evening the summer before I turned fourteen I was hanging out on the main part of downtown Jimson City which  consisted of five blocks.  It was about 9:00 at night and there was a sizable crowd, mostly farmers, in to buy groceries and get hog feed and such like, with a smattering of residents of the town.  (first time I ever said 'and such like')
I was standing on the sidewalk at the alley with some other idlers when two women approached from opposite directions.  They met at the mouth of the alley, placed their purses on the ground and proceeded to go at each other.  Without a word they pulled each others hair and scratched each other.  They fell to the ground and rolled around on the dusty bricks, hitting and tearing each others clothing.  All this in almost slow motion like an intense silent movie.
By this time a large crowd of onlookers had gathered.
As suddenly as it had started and without a word being spoken they broke it off, dusted themselves off, picked up their purses and walked away in opposite directions.
And I could hardly wait until I could see this again, confident in my youth that this went on frequently and possibly even for my entertainment.  In almost fifty years I have never seen anything to approach it.

I sent this story to a girl I graduated high school with.  She wrote back;  "I remember my dad talking about the fight on Main Street.  He said the women fought like cats and dogs!  He said the people who saw it said they would rather fight a man than those women."

THE SHADOW SAYS:  WHO SAID SMALL TOWNS ARE BORING?