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FROM GOOD OLE UNCLE VICNovember 2008
To view a Neat Video of of this message Click here!
Hello, everyone, how are you? Quite a historic presidential election, huh? Regardless of whether your candidate won or not, you have to be impressed by how our political system works. This election will surely be remembered as one of the most historic in history. God bless America.
The answer to last month's trivia question: What is the largest one-day drop in the history of the stock market and on what day? 22.6% on Black Monday, October 19, 1987. Those that got it right were: Evan Damareck, Laurie Gaston, Pam Monacelli, Pam Phipps, and Tina Hauer.
This month's trivia question: What is the most one-sided presidential election, in terms of electoral votes, in history and who were the candidates? Again, turn your answer in to Jami at Jami.Mignogna@BrickBodies.com.
Lynne and I were pretty busy in October... As you know from last month's fit tip (See October's Uncle Vic) Lynne and I went to Copenhagen, Denmark for our fitness roundtable meeting at the beginning of October. Then we went to Charleston, South Carolina for our son, Jon's parents' weekend at the Citadel and the presentation of class rings to all the seniors. Then we went to Limerick, Ireland to speak at a fitness convention (See The Road to 100 Fit Tip for October 21). And then Vicki and I went down to Daytona Beach, Florida to attend my parent's 62nd wedding anniversary. (Lynne had to stay in Baltimore to lead the warm-up for the Race for the Cure, plus she was leaving for Lisbon, Portugal the next day!)
The highlight of my travels was being the master of ceremonies at my parents' anniversary. My parents met during World War II. (Check out the accompanying video for some really neat pictures. Click here!) My dad had enlisted to be a fighter pilot. But one day during a dive in a training plane he blacked out and was awakened by the sound of a barking dog. He realized he was flying six feet off the ground over a barb-wire fence with the dog running next to him, barking, and a hole in his left wing the size of a basketball. He had no idea how the hole got there or how he came out of the dive. Seems he had damaged his inner ear in an automobile accident as a kid which caused him to black out when experiencing extreme g-force such as in an airplane dive. So the next thing you know, he was in the infantry.
He was sent to the Philippines as a casualty replacement. Fortunately for him, there were fewer men getting killed than they expected and he ended up in the Corps of Engineers as a second lieutenant. His job was to help re-build Manila by acquiring property from the locals to re-develop.
My mother was one of many local Filipino lawyers in MacArthur's administration writing contracts to present to the people from which my dad acquired property. One day my father came into the office at lunchtime and noticed three attractive Filipino women eating at a drafting table in the corner. He walked up the prettiest one (my mom) and said "When I have been out on the long, hot dusty road and I come in and see your smile, the day is re-born. So please, when you see me, just keep smiling at me."
They dated until the end of the war and then he had to return to the States to get discharged. Everyone told my mother that she would never see that American again. But they didn't know my father. He traveled from his home in Wilmington, Delaware to Washington, D.C. to petition the Director of the Corps of Engineers to let him return to the Philippines as a civilian and, after several days of camping outside the Director's office at the Pentagon, his request was granted.
Meanwhile, my mom was waiting for word of my dad's return. Her office was along the water in Manila Bay and every day, at lunch, she would sit on the sea wall and watch the ships come in. One day she came out of her office and there was my dad, waiting for her. He had come in that morning, jumped out the back of the truck taking him and others to their new assignment, and headed straight for my mothers office. Two weeks later they were married and the rest is history. Sixty-two years, four sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren later they are still going strong.
Isn't that amazing? Funny thing is, until the last few years, I didn't even know this story. I just took my parents for granted. I didn't realize how amazing their story is and how similar my dad's story is to mine. I fell in love with Lynne at first sight. (Find out how by watching the accompanying video! Click here) We both had Doubting Thomas's' who said we would never make it. (Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law!). And we are both still committed to the same woman after all these years! (Lynne and I celebrated our 30th anniversary this summer!)
I strongly urge all of you to talk to your parents to get as much information about their lives as possible. Ask them how they met. Ask them about your grandparents and your great grandparents. Ask them about your aunts and uncles. If I had not asked my parents any of these things I would not have found any of this amazing stuff out. And once they are gone, it is too late. Any of you that have lost parents know what I mean. Preserve your heritage. Write everything down. Pass it on to your kids. It is what made you who you are today.
Yours in Health and Fitness,
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