The Jock

5-1-09 "on my gosh it's May today" brain

I can see by rereading my post yesterday, I am self absorbed…. So this post won’t be “all about me”… I hope… And more about my parents.

I was looking through my notebook my Mom created for me; she also created one for my sister. These notebooks have old- old pictures of family and our family tree information. Towards the back of the book were “more current” pictures and I found this one of my Dad in his college days at Cornell College in Mt Vernon, Iowa; A nice private Methodist college in a small town just north of Iowa City and east of Cedar Rapids. (Dad is on the far right in the photo)

This was after WWII in the late 1940’s. Dad entered the war at age 17, and when he returned home he was only around 20-21 years of age. Since he grew up in Cedar Rapids and was a high school jock according to many reports….. he attended Cornell to play football, track and maybe a little basketball too. This is where he met my mother, who probably attended college there since she came from a German Methodist family. Mom was an only child and her father, a farmer, felt education was important even for girls. Her father, my Grandpa Huxsol, also helped finance my sister's and my college fund starting when we were born.

Yes, Dad was quite the jock! I’ve heard stories of how they met in a science class, and after one of the tests, when they walked out at the same time, Dad asked Mom out for coffee…. (I hope I have that correct)…. Or was it Mother asking him out? Mom always told me she thought Dad looked like Paul Newman. Mom always has had a thing for Paul!

College was a transition period for Dad returning back from the war. Mom has told us stories about him having nightmares for some time due to the war, and thus he moved from sleeping in the men’s dorm for awhile, to sleep on a cot in a backroom of a barber shop where he had a job sweeping and cleaning.

Of course we never learned about any of Dad’s war experiences until around the 50th Anniversary in 1995, when Dad and Mom went to a Marine Reunion and reconnected with some of his old friends. Then he slowly stared to tell us more and more over the years since.

I love this picture of Dad running track. As you can tell by his foot being closer to the ground, I believe he won the race. I too ran track for a year as a Freshman in high school. I was a sprinter like Dad and I did try my hand at the hurdles, but I never was too great at that. Then Dad talked me into playing on the girl’s golf team which he coached.

Over the years, I somehow took possession of Dad’s college track top….

I think I borrowed it when I was in college and thought it would be cool to wear. He probably doesn’t even know that I have it. My sister will be jealous…. But Jan, I will hand it down to your family, since you have the kids to pass onto!

Footnote: Mom and Dad will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this December!