Bill King, the premier running historian, has added some corrections and footnotes to my February reveries. He recalled the Tom Osler story about Tom’s name appearing in paper as the winner of a run. However, a few important corrections are: the parties were Ed Dodd and Neil Weygandt and the distance was not 50K, but 50 Miles (!). Both Neil and Ed are ultra-marathoners and the distance is not one that would frighten them. It also would not be the kind of item too many people could challenge or care about back there in the 70’s nor even now.
His addition to the story of Brownie’ s “Oh! The hell with it follow the guy in front of you!” was a reminder about a very good runner in those days named Moses Mayfield. Moses usually won whatever road race he chose to run. So appropriately Bill recalls an incident when Brownie remarked after making a stab at the directions, was: “Oh! The heck with it! Just follow Moses!” (With a nod to the Biblical admonition: “And he shall lead you from bondage…”)
The run I mentioned in Haddonfield to the national park, or center, was called, Bill added, the “Jonas Cattel” It was nine point seven miles (9.7). A point-to-point run and maybe “Jonas Cattel” was the name of the place where it ended. He, Bill, wasn’t sure. As fate would have it in the mail this week (2/10/96) came an ad for a run, of all places Haddonfield. It was a 15th Anniversary. The big difference however, is that typical of running today: It has Four different distances, 5K, Kings Mile, 1 mile run/walk, and a Kid’s fifty yard dash!! Ten Sponsors, including Archer & Greiner P.C. (Frank Allen’s law firm), and a race day breakfast, from 8:30 till 11:00. The folder contained four typed pages, with directions, awards, and computer application form which permits you to put the whole thing, the meal, race entry, contribution, and what ever else you want on you VISA or MC card…My have times changed!!
I thought Brownie was an innovator in those early days when he used tongue depressors with numbers printed or written on them. As you crossed the finish line some one would hand you one, and then you would turn it in to the record keeper. He would then record your place in the finish. Now they just scan your number or they just tear off the bottom part and place it on a spindle while someone just clicks on a counter the place.
Mentioning Moses Maysfield reminded me of incident back then. There was a run that covered Long Beach Island from end to end. It was approximately 18.5 miles, from Holgate to the Barnegate Lighthouse. In 1973 the run was dedicated to the Israel Wrestlers who were killed at the ’72 Olympics in Munich, Germany. It was only fitting that “Moses” won the race that day making even more apt the Biblical admonition “And he shall lead them…”
Bill added a story of his own about Tom Osler. The champ was PhD holder in Mathematics and a college professor. He also wrote a column for the early Runner’s World. It happened that one such column was entitled “How to run injury free” or some such similar title. Tom had done so for years. As luck, or fate, would have it, before the next issue Tom was injured. He then in good humor added a footnote to his next column about the physician healing himself.
I had planned to return to Meaghan’s Grandpa questions. I took a peek as what was the next subject. It was “My Home” and it referred to the “house you lived in” or home. After the checking that night I had a dream about the house at 4116 Baltimore Ave. I could see the front with the steps going up under the v-shaped porch roof. It was so clear that I promised myself that when I awoke I would sit down and sketch this Victorian structure for her. It never happened, I couldn’t put on paper that which my mind clearly saw. Michelangelo or even Norman Rockwell, I’m not, but there it was clearly on the left side of Baltimore Avenue as you go down the hill, either walking or in a trolley car. It’s in the middle of the block, attached on its left side to the red brick wall of an apartment house. The apartment house extended out to the sidewalk, while the house at 4116 sat back from it with a small grass plot surrounded by a low iron fence in front of it. I never remember anyone cutting the grass in that plot. It could be it was done while we were at the shore. But I do remember a handy man or handy men who worked around the place. I suppose they were working off a fee. One name that sticks with me was “Charlie”. If he ever had a last name I know I never heard it nor remember it.
Sitting back beyond the grass plot was the “Porch”. It was “L” shaped with the short part of the “L” running parallel to Baltimore Avenue. It ran from the apartment house wall for about 30 feet and it ended at the entranceway. It was a set of five or six steps about six feet across with railings of iron. The steps went up and under an upside-down v-shaped facade of yellow and brown. When you reached the top step you had another 20 to 22 feet, the long part of “L”, to walk to reach the front door. That door was huge by today’ s standard unless you are familiar with some of the old houses in center city on Pine or Locust streets. It was made of a mahogany with the upper half being thick cut glass. Over the door was a “transom” which is no longer found on the doors of today? On the transom were the gold leafed large numbers “4116”. The door opened into a “vestibule” or anteroom of tile floor with large mirrored clothing and hat rack. (For the word-watcher: “Vestibule” is French word derived from the Latin: vestibulum, an entrance hall) The room was just a little deeper than the width of the door, which was about 4 feet. You would then turn left to enter the house proper. You would immediately be facing another set of doors. These were two. Both made of the same mahogany with cut glass filling the upper half.
Once you entered these doors you could see across the hallway was a stairway starting up with three or four steps and then turning right and rising up along the wall. That would be the apartment house wall on the outside. To your immediate left as you stood in the vestibule entryway, was the entrance to the parlor. It was covered with drapes which were usually pulled back to permit you to enter and see the two large windows that rose from the floor to the ceiling looking out on Baltimore Ave. I have very few recollections of sitting in the “Parlour” (note, it was not a “parlor”). I remember it being the room in which wakes were held. I also remember coming home from school and finding Mother and Catherine (our live-in baby-sitter) crouched next to the radio. It was a Zenith console that stood three feet tall and had automatic station finder. They would be listening to a soap usually “Stella Dallas” or the like. Later in the evening on certain nights we would listen to “Jack Benny” or “Fred Allen Show” or the “Lone Ranger”. Our main congregating room was a second floor sitting room with an alcove that ran out over the back kitchen and looked out on the garage roof. The room had a piano and walls filled from one end to the other, from the top of the bookcases to the ceiling, with pictures – pictures of the children. One row when the child was a baby, next row when the child received Holy Communion, and then above a picture of Mother with the child, or the children, as they moved along the wall and the numbers increased to end with a family portrait. There was an abundance of pictures of Rosemary. It was later explained that as little babe or shortly thereafter she had an unusual operation to remove a tumor from her abdomen. They feared the worst so many pictures were taken to preserve her memory. She, as we all know, survived and as they say: “the rest is history!”
Meaghan’ s book next question is: “Describe your yard was it big?” Our yard was not big. It was all concrete and used mostly for the hanging of clothes. Just beyond the yard was our garage and we could enter it from the yard and then go out through the garage automobile doors to the street or alley. Our garage was the end of the alley. It extended from our garage door to the city street, a block away, viz., Chester Avenue. The alley was about 10 feet across with curbing on either side which was about 2 feet wide running to the walls (wooden) of the property on either side. The surface was brick. Here was where we played mostly when around the house or we would go to the park, Clark’s (which we mentioned before as having the only statute in the world of Charles Dickens and his character Little Nell). Over the automobile entrance to the garage were a basketball backboard and a hoop. We even sometimes had a net in the hoop but most of the time it was just a “hoop”. Here we played pick-up games, and “horse”, etc. Dribbling was art since the brick surface was uneven and along the side was the curbing, which tended to deflect the ball in erratic directions. The walls on either side of the small sidewalks were the out of bounds so it was like playing in a cage.
Next she asks, “Did you have your own room?” No, shared it with at least two brothers most of the time. On occasion it moved up to four. It was a large dormitory-like room with bunk beds. It was the front room third floor, which had an alcove looking out over Baltimore Avenue. It had a large desk in another alcove along the apartment house wall. In that one was a roll top desk with several cubby holes in which you could hide things, and two or three drawers under the desk with cabinets with glass doors across the top, while sitting at the desk on your left was a radiator and a large window with a good size windowsill. The window faced Baltimore Avenue. Having the radiator there made it a good place to do your homework in the winter but I remember doing it more often down on the kitchen table under the supervision of my Mom.
I had intended to end my recalling of the house on Baltimore Avenue, but June and I went to Cape May on Friday and one more image came back. It was the tower that ran from the third floor roof up into the sky. It was the corner of the building and where the alcove was in the third floor front bedroom. Seeing all the Victorian houses in Cape May reminded me of the witches’ hat that sat on the corner of our roof. So I thought I should add it! Just to show how old the old homestead was.
We are now in March. We spent the weekend using our children’s Christmas gifts – the certificate to the Golden Inn from Mike and Cindy, and the cash from the McSorley’s. We left Wednesday night and visited with the Hopkins at their favorite Casino. June managed to walk away a winner. It was a great way to start the weekend. We checked in at the Golden Inn, which was having a Big Band Weekend, with Al Alberts…late of the Four Aces. We had music and dancing every night and even Dixie land for Sunday Brunch. Friday we visited Cape May with the thought of obtaining a place for a week in the summer. After a day of walking the entire front of Cape May City we ended up taking a week at the Golden Inn. The week will not be disclosed until later in this broadcast. We even drove to Ocean City and checked out its environs from 34th to 58th Street but still felt the best deal was there at the Golden Inn. Amen! The weather was not very cooperative. We did get a good walk in Friday, but Saturday the view was more of Vermont than “New Joisey”. A wet snow decorated the gazebos and the sand dunes to make it a winter wonderland.
We also celebrated “Leap-Day” February 29th. It is the extra day we receive every four years. The next one will be in the year 2000. Sounds like science fiction to be talking in terms of the “year two thousand!” It was a time to note that the ancient Babylonians, the Greeks, and Egyptians all tinkered with the calendar. They would add leap days and even leap “months” to get it straight. The problems were they were using the moon, or lunar, months…which could be 29 or 30 days. But a dozen lunar months never jived with the annual cycle of the sun or year. So that as one wag wrote,” A senator in the forum could say ‘same time next year’ and it could mean almost anytime” What they did know was that the solar year ticks away at 365 days five hours and a few seconds. It was Pope Gregory XIII who, in 1582 ordered the adoption of the calendar we now have with its four 30-day months, seven 31-day months, and February with its extra “leap” day every four years.
This all sounds so simple until you talk to a physicist or astronomer and they start talking about how to calculate a “second”. The figure they arrive at could fill the line across this page. I also learned that they believe the earth’s rotation is slowing down by milliseconds (?) per year. But at the rate it is doing so I don’t think it will be a problem for me (or any one who reads this since the number of years necessary to make a correction will find us gone from this planet).
Came across some great similes, which I am pleased to pass along. They were by Lauch Faircloth, Republican Senator from North Carolina, and recorded by Francis X Clines of the N.Y. Times during some hearings. He states that getting information out of the White House is: “…like eating ice cream with a knitting needle”, or “…like skinning a hippopotamus with a letter opener” or, “like teaching a kangaroo to do the limbo”. LET A SIMILE BE YOUR UMBRELLA (W. Safire) SEE YA!!