Sunday, February 8, 2009

Ivan Sidwell: A Real Athlete


Grandpa 1944. Graduation from Bootcamp.

Grandpa told me when he was a freshman in high school, he was friends with another freshman named Ivan Sidwell. Ivan was a big guy, bigger then Grandpa and very athletic. He had light gray eyes that looked like you could see straight through them.

During lunch hour on a certain day at the high school, Grandpa and another freshman were sitting in the bleachers. Ivan was sitting a little apart from them. As a couple of seniors were coming in the door to the auditorium, somebody from the top of the bleachers launched an apple core toward the trash, but instead the apple core sailed over the railing and hit one of the seniors on his temple.

Now this particular senior had an attitude problem. He was a bully and always ready to jump on somebody. He whipped around and headed toward Grandpa and his friend (while the culprit disappeared through a back door).

Ivan seeing what was about to happen, jumped up bounded down the steps in two leaps, placed a hand on the railing, jumped over it, and landed face to face with the oncoming senior. He said to the senior, "Now, what were you intending to do to those kids?" The senior quietly turned around and walked away. Ivan then placed his hand back on the railing which was level with his head and swung himself back over and sat down.

Grandpa said he and his friend were eternally grateful to Ivan for saving them from an unjust thrashing.

Grandpa said the coaches were always trying to get Ivan into sports. Ivan would tell Grandpa privately that he would never do anything like that . . . All those guys beating each other up on the field . . . If they want a workout they can come with me and haul manure and do some real work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! It's Therese Miller--I don't know if you remember me, I was just at school this afternoon looking at Krista's blog and saw that you all have one too. Looks like everyone's doing well!

Do you guys have facebook or anything?? What are you all up to these days?

Good to "see" everyone again-It's been what-six or seven years probably!

Anonymous said...

oh, and my e-mail addy is:
thereseannemiller@yahoo.com