The best part of that story is the knife fight was with his brother.

Yeah, that's the way I heard it! They were just "messin' around" when
Pee-Wee tried to grab the knife. The sad thing to me that they didn't
even go to a doctor to get the tendon repaired! (I'm a doctor) so
Pee-Wee had to live with his disability for the rest of his life.
Not that it slowed down Pee Wee very much.

Those guys lived a hard life for sure.