Wonderful and touching, Jeff. So evocative! I can see you on the mat, at the top of the stairs. And the reflections on the trophy and your dad are heart-piercing. Love this!
Such a relatable story Jeff. In high school so many us are like the round peg trying to fit into the square hole. It is exhausting, frustrating and in the end it doesn't work.
My parents also survived the depression. My Dad did whatever it took to provide. I never heard him complain. He just said we have to do what we have to do. He worked nights (4 to 11) until I was in high school, so he missed my early sport adventures. Once he was off nights, he was a fixture at every one of mine and my siblings games and events.
I finally realized when he didn't come to my events, he was doing what he had to do.
Except for the sporting events, your dad and my dad may have known each other! I heard a variation of this many times: "He just said we have to do what we have to do." Thanks, Frank.
I would bet that your experience of going up against heavier opponents served you well in later years when encountering difficult challenges.
I endured a similar kind of torture in High School: feeling the pressure to be on a sports team and wear a letter sweater. Not being skilled in any sport in particular, I ran on the Cross-Country team. I was always in the group of stragglers at the end of the 2-mile race, pallid and heaving at the finish line. Mom was worried about me. When I told Coach Vormitag (other team members called him Coach Vomitrag behind his back) that I wouldn't be returning, he seemed somehow surprised and tried to talk me into staying for another year. I wound up with a certificate that I still have and a line in my bio in the yearbook.
Ironically, decades later I took up running when my wife sponsored a local yearly 10K race, and wound up taking a ribbon in the team category.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Bill. Wrestling might have helped with difficult challenges, but the prep I remember was the days Leon and I spent in Canada, navigating what Quetico threw at us. I remember three distinct incidents where I had to dig deep, two of which would have left us very wet and cold if we hadn't been successful.
As a personal narrative your story hits all the high notes of tone, mood, structure, tension, arc, character development. As a storyteller & instructor I deeply admire your work.
On a personal note we readers can detect in your story our life experiences & themes: win, lose, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, reconciliation, persistence, resilience, to name only a very few.
Raised as we are with the notion that winners win & losers lose it's taken me a long while to grasp this notion: we can lose battles but we do win the war.
Many thanks for your assessment and kind comments. My regret is that I lost contact with Mr. Walters. He ran a summer camp for young men and asked two of my wrestling teammates and me to help him over a spring weekend get the camp ready for summer. It was an honor to be asked. I did some digging recently and found that he passed away in 2022 at age 93. There's a life lesson there: to make sure we express our gratitude when we can to those who try to smooth our path.
Very evocative, Jeff, thanks. In High School, our English teacher was Warren Fenton Ellis. Mr. Ellis was a stickler for punctuation, syntax, spelling, and all manner of things that render English a singularly distinct and difficult language. Because of his initials WFE, and largely because we were obnoxious teens, Ellis was referred to as Wiffie. The holy grail in Wiffie's English class was acing a test, a feat referred to as Wiffing the Wiff. That I was the only one in my class to achieve that distinction stands out to me 60 odd years later. I can still see Mr. Ellis handing back my paper, seeing 100% scribbled in its upper right corner, and thinking, "Holy geez, I wiffed the Wiff!" My nitwit classmates were duly impressed. I'd love to report that my education was a stellar pursuit of understanding. Sadly, like Billie Collins's Lanyard, it was meaningless and useless to me until I began regretting the missed chances.
What a great story to share, thank you. It's so interesting what we remember. I can easily see you wiffing the wiff! I wonder, though, if Billy's mom saw the lanyard as "worthless."
Mr.Ellis must have had a positive impact on you, Byron, given that you are now a man of letters.
I'd suggest that Mr. Ellis's impact on me did not manifest until many years later, but you're right; I did benefit from his teaching. He may have been the first grammar nazi I ever knew. Thanks, Jeff. Your responses etc. are never worthless.
Once again a relatable story that strums a similar chords of my youth.
And one I feel I've passed onto my son being a DII lacrosse player. He may not be the best player on the field but as the Face-Off man, he certainly makes his contributions sometimes winning and sometimes not. But he's giving it his all.
Wonderful and touching, Jeff. So evocative! I can see you on the mat, at the top of the stairs. And the reflections on the trophy and your dad are heart-piercing. Love this!
Interesting what we remember, yes? Thanks for reading and responding.
Such a relatable story Jeff. In high school so many us are like the round peg trying to fit into the square hole. It is exhausting, frustrating and in the end it doesn't work.
My parents also survived the depression. My Dad did whatever it took to provide. I never heard him complain. He just said we have to do what we have to do. He worked nights (4 to 11) until I was in high school, so he missed my early sport adventures. Once he was off nights, he was a fixture at every one of mine and my siblings games and events.
I finally realized when he didn't come to my events, he was doing what he had to do.
Except for the sporting events, your dad and my dad may have known each other! I heard a variation of this many times: "He just said we have to do what we have to do." Thanks, Frank.
Great story! It's not only interesting what we remember but how we remember it.
True. The story emanates from our keyboard.
I would bet that your experience of going up against heavier opponents served you well in later years when encountering difficult challenges.
I endured a similar kind of torture in High School: feeling the pressure to be on a sports team and wear a letter sweater. Not being skilled in any sport in particular, I ran on the Cross-Country team. I was always in the group of stragglers at the end of the 2-mile race, pallid and heaving at the finish line. Mom was worried about me. When I told Coach Vormitag (other team members called him Coach Vomitrag behind his back) that I wouldn't be returning, he seemed somehow surprised and tried to talk me into staying for another year. I wound up with a certificate that I still have and a line in my bio in the yearbook.
Ironically, decades later I took up running when my wife sponsored a local yearly 10K race, and wound up taking a ribbon in the team category.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Bill. Wrestling might have helped with difficult challenges, but the prep I remember was the days Leon and I spent in Canada, navigating what Quetico threw at us. I remember three distinct incidents where I had to dig deep, two of which would have left us very wet and cold if we hadn't been successful.
Poignant, Jeff.
As a personal narrative your story hits all the high notes of tone, mood, structure, tension, arc, character development. As a storyteller & instructor I deeply admire your work.
On a personal note we readers can detect in your story our life experiences & themes: win, lose, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, reconciliation, persistence, resilience, to name only a very few.
Raised as we are with the notion that winners win & losers lose it's taken me a long while to grasp this notion: we can lose battles but we do win the war.
Many thanks, friend.
Many thanks for your assessment and kind comments. My regret is that I lost contact with Mr. Walters. He ran a summer camp for young men and asked two of my wrestling teammates and me to help him over a spring weekend get the camp ready for summer. It was an honor to be asked. I did some digging recently and found that he passed away in 2022 at age 93. There's a life lesson there: to make sure we express our gratitude when we can to those who try to smooth our path.
Of course, jeff. I calls it like I sees it!
Truth: say it today before the chance gets away!
Very evocative, Jeff, thanks. In High School, our English teacher was Warren Fenton Ellis. Mr. Ellis was a stickler for punctuation, syntax, spelling, and all manner of things that render English a singularly distinct and difficult language. Because of his initials WFE, and largely because we were obnoxious teens, Ellis was referred to as Wiffie. The holy grail in Wiffie's English class was acing a test, a feat referred to as Wiffing the Wiff. That I was the only one in my class to achieve that distinction stands out to me 60 odd years later. I can still see Mr. Ellis handing back my paper, seeing 100% scribbled in its upper right corner, and thinking, "Holy geez, I wiffed the Wiff!" My nitwit classmates were duly impressed. I'd love to report that my education was a stellar pursuit of understanding. Sadly, like Billie Collins's Lanyard, it was meaningless and useless to me until I began regretting the missed chances.
What a great story to share, thank you. It's so interesting what we remember. I can easily see you wiffing the wiff! I wonder, though, if Billy's mom saw the lanyard as "worthless."
Mr.Ellis must have had a positive impact on you, Byron, given that you are now a man of letters.
I'd suggest that Mr. Ellis's impact on me did not manifest until many years later, but you're right; I did benefit from his teaching. He may have been the first grammar nazi I ever knew. Thanks, Jeff. Your responses etc. are never worthless.
Once again a relatable story that strums a similar chords of my youth.
And one I feel I've passed onto my son being a DII lacrosse player. He may not be the best player on the field but as the Face-Off man, he certainly makes his contributions sometimes winning and sometimes not. But he's giving it his all.
That's all we can ask. Thanks for reading and commenting, my friend.