In the August, 1971 Issue of Sports Illustrated, there's a multi-page article titled...
The Trials of Mrs. Job
which details the "trauma/abuse" that we went through training in Mosquito Lake, Cortland,Ohio....
SI wanted an "out of bandwidth article", so they hired the :Southern humorist ( modern Mark Twain ? )
"Roy Blount Jr."
and a photographer, that stayed with my family for about 3 days....
Mr. Blount took no notes, wore no tape recorder.... however would go to his room...and type away until the wee hours...
Shockingly..the article IS..."word for word" accurate... AND...the SI "fact checkers" only bounced" one item....
There's an "episode" where my mother is standing on the dock screaming, waving the leather belt "threatening"....screaming...
"it's not cold..it's not cold"....while wearing 3 layers of winter coats, and 2 wool scarves.....I had smuggled a cooking theremometer, that "pegged" at the low end..@ 48 degrees...
that IS the "only{" item SI didn't include....
what I didn't know...WAS....
the Ohio chapter of the USOC had been running "footage" of me swimming, as an "Ohio boy... ( I am STILL that 12 year od Ohio boy at heart...
Here's what our "Next door neighbor" did to our house... not once..but TWICE !!! My parents were told that there wa a "contract" on their lives...so they "got outta Dodge" ..and moved into 3769 Nathan Way,Palo Alto a house I bought when I was 17...using $11,500 of the $ 15,ooo they had in the bank.... our entire "net worth THEN..was about $ 35 K
my parents trusted me..in fact nevver saw the house... until about 18 mo after we bought it....
Doug Windes,Alan Dilley,Steve Strong and I lived there during the "runup" to the 72 Olympic trials....
After noting that in one sitting...the four of us.."polished off... BOTH a turkey and a ham...with NO leftovers......
I totalled up the shopping receipts for that month as we "split" it equally..just that MONTH
