Was I a coward ???

At age 21 I married my first wife Funny. She was from a family of long standing fighters. She had 13 brothers and sisters and was raised in a situation where you had to be tough to survie.
Her brother Ed was the top gun of the family, he was a real fighter, he had been taut to box professionaly and had the guts and wantto to back it up.
When we first got married and i got to know the family, it didnt take me long to figure out that someday I was going to have a runin with Ed. I wasnt a fighter but I knew if I backed away from a fight i would be considered a coward. And that wouldnt go over good with my wife, or the rest of the family.
One night Funny and I, and ed and his wife Pam were at a bar. After a few beers, quite a few beers, Ed and I started argueing about something, it wasnt long before ED was asking me if i wanted to step outside.
I had seen this day comeing for some time and I new I didnt have a hope in hell of winning a fight with ED. But I also new I couldnt back down. I was scared as hell but I figured as long as I tried and didnt back down nobody could say i was a coward.
So outside we went. And of course half the bar came out to see the fight. We faced each other with our fists up and threw a few punches. we went at each other a few times, neither one doing any real damage. Then i ducted and ran at him, pushing him back a little but not knocking him down, we came out of it swinging and really going at it.
After what seemed like a long time Ed started to back off a little and to my surprise he said " lets quit " I fugured he could drop me anytime but I went at him again, still not doing any damage. He siad several times he didnt want to hurt me, but I wouldnt quit.
Finnaly he droped his hands to his side and said " I could drop you, but i dont want to"
Trying not to act releved, I dropped my hands.
We turned to walk back to the bar and our wives were standiing there in the crowd. some guy was trying to talk to Eds wife. I could see that Pam was trying to ignore the guy, cus she new what was going to happen.
ED walked up to the guy and said "Are you talking to my wife" and out of nowhere Eds fist hit the guy in the mouth. he went realing back into the crowd with his mouth wide open and blood spewing everywhere. seemed to me like he was spitting out his teeth.
My first thought was Wholly fuck, that could have been me. I felt i was very lucky to be in one peace.
I grabed ED and said lets get out of here before the cops come. We grabed our wives and ran for our cars and got the hell out of there.
Ed and i were real good friends after that. He even told the rest of the family "If you want John you have to go thou me first" and they all respected me because of that.
Funny latter told me she had heard a guy in the crowd say" they are both keeping there dukes up pretty good "
I guess i really did prove something to everybody and most importantly to myself.
I even feel kind of prod writeing this letter some 44 years latter. :)

i wounder what happened to spellcheck :(