| Subject: “A Day in the Life…and sharing it with friends” |
Author:
 Stacy
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Date Posted: 21:47:09 10/31/06 Tue
I used to work at Weis grocery store in Perry Hall for almost a year in the evenings. I had to quit when I found out the cancer had come back. I just adored my boss. We clicked right away. Ironically he is a cancer survivor as well. That was probably why we clicked. He is a Prostate cancer survivor.
Jack wrote this true story on Saturday, October 21, 2006 and I wanted to share it (of course with his permission),
“A Day in the Life…and sharing it with friends”
Knowing that Jack was just a few days shy of logging 900 fast walking miles on his treadmill; since the doctor and he decided Jack needed to get back in shape earlier this year, and also remembering that Jack used to run outside, 5 miles every day "some" years ago, his oldest daughter issued him a challenge. Join her and run the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer event in Downtown Baltimore today. It is a cause she is passionate about, and she was relentless insisting that he join her for the run this year.
The thing she didn't understand was that regardless of his former "love" for running, Jack's running career stopped 18 years ago when his knees decided enough was enough.
Well having many friends, relatives, and former co-workers who are now survivors or departed victims of this dread disease, and being a cancer survivor himself, Jack put the knees on notice. Like it or not, they were coming out of retirement and joining him and the daughter to have a go at "running" the 3 mile course.
Upon arrival downtown, along with MANY thousands of other supporting runners; Jack, being an old "Brooklyn Boy", was delighted to find the run would be through the streets of South Baltimore, the favorite stomping grounds of his later teen years.
It was chilly starting out. The early morning rising sun now starting to warm, but also blinding everyone, as the first leg of the run headed eastbound directly into it. Maybe it was because of the sun in his eyes, or maybe it was because of that huge exhilarating rush that every runner gets, (a feeling that he hadn't felt in so many years) but as he rounded the corner at Light Street and headed South he was suddenly transported back in time 40 years. Everything he saw, smelled, and heard was just as it was in 1966.
First, there was that wonderful smell of cinnamon from the long gone McCormick's Plant on Light Street. Looking to his left, there were no "Inner Harbor Pavilions", just the old rundown buildings that used to be there. He saw no yachts or sailboats, just tugs, barges and small freighters delivering fresh produce to the old wholesale market place once again located to the right of him. Looking down at the concrete beneath his feet, it suddenly changed back to cobble stones, imbedded with railroad tracks.
The run down Key Highway revealed the High Rent Condos were gone, and the Beth Steel Shipyard had mysteriously reappeared. It was very busy with work being done. The noises and sounds coming from the shipyard were defining, just like they used to be. The acrid smell of the welder’s torches drifted through the air. Some old, weathered, hard hat wearing men, oblivious to the thousands of runners, were scurrying across the street to Wrotens Cafe to get a quick "banger of rye" and a Cold National Bohemian on their break. Patsy Cline's "Crazy" blared from the bar's juke box and out the open door. Further down Key Highway on the right, another familiar smell. This time it was a sweet one. Oh yes... the building where King Syrup was made. Jack now sees a line of men loading cases of syrup by hand, into the rail car at the building's rail dock.
Up the hill he goes and a right turn onto Fort Ave. Where the McDonalds now sits, changes back into the old Wagner's Store with its smell of fried onions and the best subs ever made. Mr. Wagner, the nicest man you would ever meet, is standing in the doorway. Hey!!!, there's Zeke's Bar, complete with the big taped over crack in the front window. Zeke's is now also gone for many years but for today, back and busy like before. A few great Friday evenings were spent there by Jack and his best friend; Buzzy Hardin, but by invitation only into Zeke's "safe" back room. There along with some of the other the neighborhood young men, they could sit and play cards, watch the "O's" on a "color" TV and enjoy a couple of pitchers of "Ice Cold". Many of these same guy's fathers were out in the front room doing the same thing we were. Most of the neighborhood bars over here were just like that back then.
With his run down Fort Ave, crossing every side street, a glance to the right or left, showed them to be filled with the vintage cars of those days. The echo of kids playing Wiffle Ball down William Street, the never ending line at Kutchie's Snowball Stand, the "clop, clop, clop of the horse pulling the Street Arab's Wagon down Battery Ave, that melodic voice calling out his daily specials, everything so beautiful, magically and precisely just as it was so many years ago.
And so it went. Around every corner, and with each new block, there opened another door in Jacks memory hall. He was suddenly able to bring to life, the now long gone ghosts of yesteryear, from the sights, the sounds, the smells still in the memory of his senses. They exploded one after another in pleasant visions of what used to be, exactly as it was. Strange, Jack never seemed to notice any of it back then.
Then, another corner turned and Jack is now heading West. The sudden sight of two huge stadiums while cresting the Hamburg Street Bridge brought the rude awakening it was actually 2006 and he was back in today again and today quickly showed him the true hero’s of the days event. About a thousand ladies, all wearing pink shirts indicating they were survivors, lined both sides of the street, cheering and applauding those about to cross the finish line.
Somehow for the last 35 minutes, Jack had unexpectedly run through the streets of a world long gone away. He remembered the old Natty Bo Advertisement of that time period described this town with its catch phrase as "The Land Of Pleasant Living", and it most certainly was just that.
As he crossed the finish line, he chuckled to himself. His 58 year old Happy Irish rear end had just completed a 3 mile RUN through the same streets where some 40 years ago, at times after a good night with his friends and a belly full of beer, he could only navigate with a bit of an unsure stagger on his walk back to Brooklyn after missing the last #6 transit bus of the night. (He had no car back then, LOL)
Oh yes, as a foot note, Jack finished the race just fine, feeling triumphant and better than he had in years. Jack's knees on the other hand, left Jack standing there, and they continued to run another two blocks to the north, then promptly checking themselves into The University of MD Hospital. They are expected to make a full recovery and re-join Jack in about 2 weeks. They have vowed him pay back!
Jack did not collect any money or donations ahead of time. He was not sure he would actually take his daughter up on her challenge until the last minute. What Jack hopes by writing this, is that you have enjoyed the sharing of his run through this little story. It is in fact how it actually happened for him.
He hopes it makes you understand the importance of seeing your doctor regularly. This is for both you males and females, because early cancer detection brings to you your best odds of "Surviving", and surviving with a good quality of life. Had he not been diagnosed early, Jack would now also be among the ghosts in someone else's memory running those streets today.
He also hopes that someday, somewhere, you will be around when someone is "passing the hat” for the Komens Breast Cancer Cause, and your remembrance of this story will bring a smile to your face and a buck or two will get dropped in the hat as you go by. It is such a worthy cause and it is so on the right track. In 1966, a cancer diagnosis was almost certainly a death sentence, but not today.
Jack left there today very proud to have been a part of this wondrous effort and oh yes, besides the above experience (which really did happen to him), just to have the chance to run, yes actually RUN, (something he thought he'd never ever do again) a 3 mile course with his 31 year old daughter; well as the commercial says...
It's "PRICELESS!!!!"
Thank you so much for your time. Writing this wasn't planned. I sat down while thinking about today, started typing, and this kind of just came out. I thought I'd share it with my friends. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed telling it to you.
Jack Higgins
Perry Hall, Md.
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