[Tom Ryan]

Okay, Al, sounds good.

I can put you in touch with someone at the Paul Anderson Youth Home (PAYH) who would make the local arrangements for your visit. They would probably invite you for lunch. I have had some correspondence with Glenda, Paul’s widow, over the years in regard to the PAYH, but I’ve never met her. She will be 74 this year and would undoubtedly be an interesting person to meet and engage in conversation.

This is my only article on Paul that is on the Internet.
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/people/article/athletes-coaches/paul-anderson .

I wrote an article on Anderson for Bill Clark’s Strength Journal many years ago that you may have seen.

I had a PAYH bumper sticker on my car during the 1970s and one day a woman parked her car
behind mine when I was a graduate student at the U. of Georgia and was out shopping. I’m guessing the year was 1973. She saw my bumper sticker and asked me “Do you know Paul Anderson?”. I replied that I had indeed met him (in 1972) and had corresponded with him (in 1970). She said “Well, I am his sister, Dot, from Toccoa”. As she walked away toward the supermarket in the shopping center, I noticed that she had the same type of walking gait as Anderson. I thought that was somewhat funny. 🙂

I’ll think about writing up a proposal for a seated clean and the rules for the lift. We might want to have both a two-handed lift and a one-handed lift. I can almost picture myself falling out of a chair while doing the two-handed lift and I might not be the only one to do so! 🙂

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

I really enjoyed your article, Thom, … and I can relate to it!! It is interesting that many kids who are bullied grow up to be very large, powerful men. Most of you probably know that Lou Ferrigno was bullied as a kid because of his speech defects that resulted from his hearing problem. So what happens? He grows up and becomes The Incredible Hulk!! Talk about a 180 degree turn! If anyone isn’t familiar with his life story, you may find this video to be interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6MUSCdGgmw

I started lifting weights in December, 1958 when I was 13, after receiving a weight set for Christmas from my parents. I was 5-7 and weighed only 107 pounds. My father called me “Bones”. In my first workout, I pressed 40 pounds for 8 reps.

In addition to be practically just skin and bones, my ears stuck out further than normal, a physical characteristic that I inherited from my father, who suggested that I might want to have that problem corrected surgically, as he did when he was a kid.

So picture a very skinny kid with ears that protruded, combine that with the fact that I lived in a less-than-desirable neighborhood from December, 1957 until June, 1960, and you can probably guess what happened.

I had three primary tormentors, who were all my age, and a secondary tormentor who was two years younger than me. I liked them and enjoyed interacting with them individually. But when at least two of them got together, they then practically became juvenile delinquents! So they would hide my school lunch occasionally, serenade me with a chorus of “Tom wears dainty panties”, etc. Nothing physical, but what they did was annoying enough.

I certainly didn’t want to fight them because they were my friends. In fact, one of them was my helper when I had a paper route for about 9 months in 1959 until my father advised me to give it up because we had problems with a dog and its owner, as the dog kept trying to bite my leg each time I rode my bicycle up a short street to deliver the newspapers.

Another one of the four was my teammate on a Babe Ruth League team for two years. I also got along well with the other two.

One day in the 10th grade I was being tormented by a couple of them, as we were all in the same biology class. One of them flipped some ink at me and it landed on my shirt.

That was the last straw! I told my baseball teammate that I would meet him after school. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and neither one of us showed up. 🙂 My father had just had a serious heart attack and was hospitalized and my old teammate found out about it, undoubtedly because our mothers worked for the same company and rode together to work.

So he suggested that we go play golf together, which we did. (His father was an avid golfer and I had played my first round of golf with father and son about two years earlier.)

Nobody ever gave me any trouble after that. One day during my senior year in high school, my old teammate stopped me in the hall to ask me a question. We spoke briefly and he then apologized for stopping me to ask me the question! I thought that was a bit funny as this was the same person who had tormented me just a few years earlier.

By then I was 6-4 and, because of weight training, I weighed 214 when I graduated from high school. After that, I kept getting bigger and bigger, eventually weighing slightly over 300 pounds. As a statistics professor, I would attend the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association, which is always held in a large city. Of course walking around in the downtown area of such cities is not always safe. On one occasion I mentioned that I didn’t feel unsafe walking around and a close friend laughed and said that I really didn’t need to worry about being mugged. 🙂

As for my old neighborhood tormentors, the youngest of the four died a few years ago at the age of 65; the kid who helped me with my paper route served 3 or 4 prison terms for a total of 10 years and died 9 years ago; and the son of my baseball teammate attacked his former girlfriend with a claw hammer several years ago and served 3.5 months in jail.

The other kid was expelled from school in the 11th grade and I was told that he also spent time in prison. I believe I found a photo of him on the Internet a few years ago, “looking like something that the cat dragged in” at the age of 67.

So this is my story, Thom. 🙂

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

I just saw Steve’s update on Facebook and immediately came over here to see what info you guys might have. I am glad that Denny is doing better and apparently has an excellent prognosis.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

That does look very strange; maybe the counter malfunctioned.

[Tom Ryan]

Your 183 was very, very impressive, Timo, and you were obviously good for more. You have incredibly strong fingers.

[Tom Ryan]

Interesting story, Ruth. 🙂

[Tom Ryan]

Steve,

You should do it from the side because that is more efficient. That didn’t work for me, however, because I am 6-4 and I couldn’t get low enough. So I had to load from the front and then twirl the bar around to get it across my shoulders. That is doing it the hard way and I was not able to do a lot in that lift. (I downloaded from the side, not the front.)

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Love your humor with the “Sir Lance Alot”, ET. LOL I am probably late in my exposure to that bit of local humor, but I am a considerable distance from where you guys reside.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Nice article, indeed.

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Yes, congratulations, ET!

[Tom Ryan]

Actually, Thom, Steve hasn’t been to a dentist in about 13 years. Several years ago, he got me started using tooth soap/foam instead of a commercial toothpaste, as he believes in the teachings of the late Dr. Weston Price, as do I. I order it and have it shipped to me; I do not know of any stores that carry it.

I believe that Kitty now makes the tooth soap that Steve uses. Considering Steve’s teeth feats, perhaps she puts some kryptonite in the soap. LOL

[Tom Ryan]

Yes, thanks Al.

[Tom Ryan]

There are no USAWA state records, Steve. For a national (USAWA) record, only one certified official is needed, whereas for a world (IAWA) record at least two are needed. The latter requirement has tripped me up a time or two on my records.

[Tom Ryan]

I am saddened, but not surprised, to read of Joe’s passing, as Wilbur Miller told me several weeks ago that he was not doing well. Even though he was in ill health, he was still planning to hold a deadlift contest and Wilbur told me that he was planning to drive down for the competition.

Joe was active, both as a competitor and in filming competitions, during the early days of the USAWA. There were times when he would step from behind his camera to make an attempt on the platform, then return to filming the meet. 🙂

Joe was also active in Missouri Valley competitions before the USAWA was formed. One lift at which he excelled was the one-arm clean and jerk. I assume that most of you guys do the lift by cleaning the bar to one shoulder, with the end of the bar facing forward. Joe cleaned the bar the same way one would do a two-hand clean, with the bar landing across his chest. It is impressive to see someone use that technique. I don’t recall exactly how much he lifted that way, but I’m sure it was over 150. Phil Anderson was his protege and he taught Phil to do the lift that way. Phil was an impressive athlete with a tiny waist and a trim, muscular physique. I don’t recall what Phil did in the one-arm C&J at the meet at which I met him, but I believe it was about 187 — a stout poundage, needless to say, which was only about 10 pounds less than he weighed. I recall that he did a two-hand C&J of 320 at that meet.

I bought virtually all of the videos that Joe offered for sale, and I recall him once mentioning that he thought I had bought everything.

At one time Joe was talking about taking over Clark’s newsletter and had discussions with Bill about it, but that never happened.

RIP Joe!

Tom

[Tom Ryan]

Happy belated Birthday from me as well.

Tom

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