1959

As I prepared this month's column, I was looking at an empty mailbox, and, To and behold, John Towle forwarded the comments noted below. They provide a humorous run-down of the proven or unproven athletic prowess of some of our classmates and my ex-roommates, which was exhibited during an exciting adventure on the Colorado slopes and reviewed by John Marsh.

"A follow-up to our '59 odyssey [relates to 1991 race and 1992 plans]. Early rankings for the Great Race—time and place to be determined.

"Peter Jarvis: Superman lives. 'Toasted' entire group. Tribute to 30 years of clean living. Voted best outfit(s) and least changed. Early favorite, though could change if he reverts to '56 appetite.

"Kurt Christiansen: A sleeper. This late bloomer could challenge. May hire personal trainer and coach. Motivated, but needs win to boost confidence. Could start with Towle and hope Waterman doesn't show up.

"Mark Gates: Has added technique to bulldoggedness he always had. Now a stylist. Handles all conditions well. Chances improve if Jarvis snags pantyhose doing aerobics and injures self. Voted 'most improved.' That annoyed the hell out of Marsh, who was never a factor.

"Don Peterson: Would have higher seed but faded early. Ex-jumper never left ground after day two. Voted 'warmest dresser' and 'worst goggles.' Needs work. A lot of it.

"Al Brown: Only invited so group would have 'patsy.' Wrong. Skied most off the course. Strong finisher. Strength, absence of fear a plus. Needs a second outfit.

"Bob Hellsell, John Marsh, John Hessler: Lump these three together. 'Lump' is appropriate here. Best athletes in group were disappointing this year. One or more factors lacking: attitude, conditioning, apres training, equipment, technique, confidence. One will leave pack behind. Stay tuned.

"John Towle: Known as 'Towler Bear.' Motto: 'Better dead last than dead.' Won joke event going away with Pancho Villa's 'we had lunch together.' Why not? Pancho's the only one John didn't have lunch with."

With his note John Towle also advised that he suffered a ruptured disc problem in March but is back on die road to recovery, plus golf and tennis (and skiing?).

Harry A. Shaw, Huffy Corp., P.O. Box 1204, Dayton, OH 45401