I hope that I can effectively tell this story…
It was summer during my early high school years. I was at home one afternoon doing what one does during their early high school years in the summer…. not much. A visitor arrived… not for me, but for my sister Joyce who was home from college.
It was her boyfriend, Jack Fischer.
This was the first time I had met Jack, and I was not impressed. He had long hair… ponytail long, long sideburns, cutoff jean shorts and an old T-Shirt. He was from the East Coast, was boisterous and I thought pretty arrogant. He was a Hippy, and I did not like Hippies. It took me about 2 minutes to formulate this opinion.
Jack tried to initiate a conversation with me, but I was not too interested.. until he started talking about sports. He asked what sports I participated in. He had no interest in football, but when I mentioned running track, that was a different story.
It seemed that Jack ran track too when he was in school, and was a sprinter as I was. The conversation started to move toward what my best times were in my races; 100m, 200m, 400m.
I was fast…. in athletics, that was always my “thing”. My senior year I had one of the top 100m dash times and THE fastest 200m dash time in the Kansas City metro area. I also had one of the top 400m run times. I was FAST… and I knew it.
Jack was unimpressed. Coming from the East Coast, I am sure he thought my rankings were due to my country bumpkin competition. When I asked his times… he “could not remember”… how convenient.
He did offer up a solution … instead of comparing times, lets just go out back in the field and have a race. Perfect!
There was no way this guy was going to win… he was a squatty 5-foot nothing with “cankles”… and I am sure hadn’t done any racing or serious training in YEARS. This was going to be fun.
So, out back we went… we set up the course, did some light stretching and we are ready. I acquiesced and allowed him the honor of giving the usual starting commands of “runners take your mark… set… GO!”
And Jack proceeded to win the race … easily.
It seems that I was wrong about this squatty body guy not being able to run… and wrong about all my initial impressions…. Jack ended up marrying my big sister Joyce, and was one of the funniest, smartest, most interesting and nicest guys you could ever meet. I loved Jack like a brother.
A year ago today Jack lost his “race” with cancer.
When you judge a book by its cover you miss the most interesting parts.
You Can Do More… your brain is lying to you…. Don’t Believe It!
Jeff Floyd – youcandomore1@yahoo.com
Coach another fine article.
Jeff, I have six degrees of separation here. My cousin Patrick Murphy who lived in Idaho, passed away a few years ago, but he was in the newspaper/publishing business and he knew Jack. I never knew Jack, but I facebook with your sister Joellen and her daughter Andrea and I am coming to know your wonderful family through them. I loved reading your blog here, that Jo shared. Thank you for sharing this writing. Jack sounds like he was indeed a special person, not unlike the Floyd family I am discovering through facebook. Best wishes to you. Linda Fraser
Linda, Thanks for reading, and thanks for taking the time to comment… Jack was a special guy
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