Good Sports

by Budd Glassberg

Reprinted with permission from the Zionsville Times Sentinel on July 12, 2006

Character Witness

“Outside books, we avoid colorful characters.” – Mason Cooley

He was very tall and exceptionally slim and swung his arms quite high as his long stride gulped up real estate under his feet. I guessed him to be in his early sixties as I observed him speed walking on Dover Point Road near Dover, NH. In 1974 it was unusual to see anyone walking on a public road with no shoulder going at a speed greater than 4 miles per hour. Yet warm or cold weather, this gentleman, always wearing a heavy turtleneck sweater, was walking on this road every morning. Each morning I would pass him in my car as I made my way to Portsmouth Tech wondering who this strange man was and why he was always on this road walking so quickly. His routine never changed. He never donned a coat. Compelled to solve this mystery man, I began to make inquiries about him. No one that I knew in New Hampshire had met this man.

One winter morning I stopped my car just off the road after passing the man and waited for him. I rolled down my window as he approached the car. I told him that I had seen him every weekday morning for the past two months rapidly walking on this road and asked him who he was and why he was walking on this busy road. His response was very surprising. He said he was living in a nearby nursing home and was allowed to go outside each morning for an hour of exercise. The nursing home was on this road and he decided that speed walking on a busy road with no shoulder for one hour each morning was preferable to sitting on a couch waiting for bingo games. I inquired why a man as young and vibrant as he was would be living in a nursing home. He said he was no longer young, but 82 years old and had no living relatives and needed the nursing home to care for him due to a heart condition he had had several years prior. I thanked him for his time, wished him well and drove off to school.

I waved to this man each morning from my car window through the winter and spring. One late spring morning, I noticed he wasn’t walking on the road. He wasn’t there the next day either. After over a month of not seeing him, I assumed he had taken ill or had died.

How many other people driving on Dover Point Road had seen this man each day and wondered about him? My guess is that very few, if anyone else, had stopped to inquire about him. I believe most of the drivers assumed he was just a “character”, someone different from the rest of us. I had discovered a little more than the other drivers, but now I wish I had learned more about him. I regret not visiting him at the nursing home and finding out about his story. Each of us has a tale to tell and I suspect his was an interesting one.

Most people, in their time, have experienced an odd person whom they knew nothing about. It is likely they think of the unusual person as a “character” and never dig deep enough to learn anything about the peculiar individual. Since moving to Zionsville in 1984, I have witnessed several of these “characters”.

Recently, I have come to realize that for some people who live here, I would be considered a “character”. Most mornings I walk to work on State Road 334, barefoot, wearing a white Panama hat to shade my head. I retrace my steps on those afternoons on my way home. Perhaps some passerby wonders about this strange little man they see walking barefoot, wearing a broad rimmed hat and sometimes talking to himself in this affluent community. If that passerby inquires about me, you can tell them that I also have a story. They can read that story each Wednesday in the Zionsville Times Sentinel.

Budd Glassberg is a resident of Zionsville who is active in the local running community. Visit www.runz.com for reprints of all his columns. You can reach him by email at budd@runz.com.