I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 30, 1939, and I `had a wonderful childhood—thanks to two great parents. I attended Hanover College for two years and graduated from Indiana University in 1963 with a BA in government. My new bride and I moved to Washington, DC where I joined the staff of freshman U. S. Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) as his first intern. During my 10 years on his staff I was promoted to Director of Political Affairs and Constituent Services. During that period I served in executive positions in six campaigns at the Gubernatorial, US Senate and Congressional levels and was afforded the opportunity to shake the hands of five U.S. Presidents.
After my decade with Senator Bayh, I joined the staff of staff of Senator Mike Gravel (D) of Alaska. I was his Washington office chief of staff and raised $400,000 for his re-election campaign.
I spent my post political years as Vice President for the National Retail Federation for state and national associations where I had the responsibility of handling the Association’s relations with its 50 State and 27 National Retail Associations. In that capacity, I had the opportunity to visit all 50 states as a guest speaker.
I have always felt that I have had a very interesting and satisfying life—one full of unusual, poignant and humorous experiences. Recently I reflected on how I probably have not shared many of these stories with my wife, daughters or grand- children. This fact collided with the reality of my just turning 80, so I decided to put some of these memories down on paper for my family. It also occurred to me that they might serve as a contribution to the Writers’ Club of Leisure World.
My story begins with my high school years at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis.
Riverside Amusement Park
Riverside Amusement Park was a giant park located in central Indianapolis and featured a full complement of carnival rides and games and perhaps as many as 10-12 baseball diamonds. My high school baseball team, Shortridge, played many of its games in this park. The diamonds were laid out on widely differing levels.
On one particular occasion, we were playing on the most highly elevated playing field in the sports complex. The surface on which we were playing barely contained the infield before dropping, parallel aside the first base line, many, many yards on a steep incline down to another baseball diamond.
I was a right-handed batter. I swung late on a pitch and hit the ball on the extreme end of the bat. The ball was wildly rotating and cleared the first baseman’s head by
about four feet. You could hear the ball make a weird spinning noise as it sailed over his outstretched hand. It barely stayed fair, but then bounced a hard right straight down the giant hill on which our diamond was set.
It ended up on the lower playing field, rolling towards a startled short stop, who was, as he should have been, focused straight on the batter at home plate. But here came my ball, trickling down the gigantic hill toward his right foot.
If that wasn’t confusing enough, he then noticed the catcher, in full protective gear, the pitcher and first baseman of the team we were opposing, racing down the hill from our elevated diamond to set up some kind of relay to get my ball up on our diamond to stop my running the bases.
Meanwhile, I nearly “succumbed” while rounding second base and heading for third. (At 5’10” and 150 pounds, I didn’t have much practice running out home runs!) As my ball was gradually being relayed up to our paying field, I couldn’t run much farther. Finally, my right foot hit HOME PLATE! The umpire yelled, “safe!” and I collapsed in the arms of my congratulating teammates—many were hysterically laughing. I had just hit the most bizarre, funkiest home run in Shortridge history!
Broad Ripple
In the 1950’s, the Broad Ripple section of Indianapolis was on the way to becoming a quaint, artsy, “in place” extension of Indianapolis, but to most of us, it was just the home of our northside school rival. We all knew a few kids from their school, but in general there wasn’t that much interaction between students.
It wasn’t until I entered Hanover College and was having trouble with freshman Biology that I met an attractive Broad Ripple co-ed who happened to be a straight A student. I asked her if she would tutor me for our midterm. She agreed. We discovered that we lived on adjacent streets in Indianapolis—but 17 blocks apart.
She got her A in biology. I got through. Mission accomplished!
We decided to date that summer. I asked her if she liked bowling. She said “yes.” When I picked her up and met her mom and dad, I noticed a living room bookcase full of bowling trophies. I asked her if they were her dad’s. She modestly replied, “No, they’re mine.”
She trounced me on the lanes that night but, I didn’t “strikeout.” She ultimately became my wife and our 61-year romance continues to this day.