I related a story several years ago about my encounter with high school classmate Jim. He was at our 50th high school reunion. He thanked me for saving his life when we were kids by pulling him out of ice on the Plymouth Mullet River. I remembered the incident vaguely and for me it just something anybody would have done. For Jim it was “a life changing event”. Jim wrote me a note recently on his 70th birthday again thanking me.
My significant memories of Jim are different. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, polio was a feared disease. Nobody knew how you got it. There were no cures. Pictures of an ominous “iron lung chamber” were common. For serious cases of polio, people were placed in the glass encased chamber that forced their lungs to expand and contract. I think it was 1954 that the Salk vaccine forced polio into history. You guessed it, Jim got polio in his freshman year of high school. I remember reflecting on why Jim contracted the illness. He was a healthy buddy who did many of the same “kid things” that I did. Why him? Why not me?
Jim missed his freshman year of high school. Polio causes major pain in all muscles and if physical therapy is not rendered, muscles will atrophy. Jim never progressed to the point where he needed help breathing which would have required the iron lung. He obviously survived the ordeal.
Jim’s house was on the way home from high school. I would stop from time to time to visit. He had a cot set-up on the first floor of his home so that he could receive visitors. His parents did many things to keep him busy. He did all the school homework for his freshman school year from home. They also got Jim a subscription to a book club that kept sending him new editions of The Hardy Boys series. I think there were 25 books. It was the equivalent of Nancy Drew but it was for guys. When he finished each book, he would lend me the new book which I took home and read cover to cover. It is the earliest I remember reading a book for entertainment. I couldn’t wait to get the next book. In a sense, Jim introduced me to recreational reading.
Jim went on to attend the University of Wisconsin, Madison and got a degree in Civil Engineering. He lives in Maryland with his wife who is a physician. Jim is still working at age 70 overseeing projects for Marriott Hotel chains. I’m sure it is a labor of love. I don’t think he needs the money. Of course, having a wife 20 years younger might just drive him also.
I was just a small part of Jim’s life. I did pull him out of the Mullet River but it wasn’t his time to go. Bigger yet, he survived the encounter with polio. He became successful professionally and now celebrates his 70th birthday. He is employed, healthy and vital. I’m sure he will live a long, long time.
Yet in Jim’s mind, I am the reason for his being alive today. It is a major factor in his life. Go figure.
Love,
Dad