Influence

I'm in Montana again...finding long lost friends...finding comfort...finding myself.  There were several people on my list I wanted to see, one of which was this man, Mr. McKinnon.

My friend Tricia and I surprised Bob by showing up at my grandmother's assisted living placed where he was playing the banjo.  Little did I know I'd be spending the entire afternoon and evening with him and his wife Suzy.

So, I've had this writer's block lately...can't think of a fun, funny, happy, interesting, worthwhile thing to write about in this blog.  Now all of a sudden, today, I have so much to say about this one person and it's wrapped up in one word...influence.

I can't begin to count the hours that I spent in this man's company.  I started swimming when I was 5. I swam competitively until I was 18...hours and hours spent at the pool, playing mini-golf at his house, admiring his greyhounds, reading his books, on buses driving across Montana listening to him and my mom play the banjo for us, ravishing food at restaurants after races....all with Bob.  The thing is, there were loads of us...Gus's Guppies...Bob's swimmers...our team.  All of us have been influenced by this man in ways that I don't think we can even begin to understand.  And we cared what the ole meanie thought whether we liked it or not!

I remember Bob pulling a kid out of the pool by his hair when he was goofing off.
I remember him throwing money for us to fetch off the bottom of the pool.

I remember the way he would eat apples with his hair sticking up all over the place at practice.

I remember him smoking cigarettes out the side door.

I remember his laugh, his music, his yell.

Another thing...Bob knew!

Knew when someone had it in them to be better.

Knew when someone was cheating themselves.

Knew when we could win...just knew.

Through all this...all this time...I never really trusted that Bob liked me.  I thought he picked on me, was hard on me..ya, I know...poor me (that's what he would say).  My mom told me later in life that he was hard on me because he liked me, because he knew I could do better, because he knew I could be a better person to myself...like I said above, he just knew.

Do our parents know who is going to influence us, good or bad, when they trust us in the hands of another?  Maybe...maybe not. Do the people who influence us know how they effected our lives?  Do they care?  Do they want to know one way or another?  (can you believe I threw my kids in the pool just like Bob would have done??)

Anyhooo, I spent the evening with Bob and Suzy and I'm going to tell you where they influenced me in single words:

• humor
• health
• creativity
• strength
• music
• love
• anger
• work
• belonging

Bob, I think of you when I see my girls play the fiddle.  I think of you when I workout at the pool. I think of you when I write. I think of you when I teach. You were a huge influence on me in so many ways, through so many years and I thank you.  I would trust my children to you......what more can I say???