...and the vampires got special mention

I don't have the happiest history with sporting events, which history I've written about here.

So when my friend A. suggested I take part in the Reiche International 5k Road Race it didn't take a hard sell.  I've been meaning to move deeper into a skill my father had back after WW II.

He had met another young Native man while serving on the U.S.S. Altamaha in the Pacific.  Dad's friend showed him some running tricks he'd picked up while on the UCLA track team - and years later, when I was 8 or so, Dad showed them to me.

It was in the early Fifties - before I was born - that the film crew for "Jim Thorpe: All-American" came to Bacone College outside of Muskogee - my Dad's junior college home - to film it as the Carlisle Indian Academy.

This was Burt Lancaster's first real starring role and quite a coup for Oklahoma film-making.

So here was a race, using the Bacone's track team to stand in for Carlisle and my dad as part of the background action.

I've seen this race on T.V. when I was a little boy.  Dad didn't watch with me very often, we just didn't have the same taste, but I do remember him sitting beside me for this film, clear as day.

So, in the film the gun goes off and Jim Thorpe (Lancaster) goes flying around the track to demonstrate his obvious prowess to Pop Warner.  There's a whole history right there.

However, when it was filmed it played out differently.

Dad being Dad - and little has changed in the intervening 6 decades - he took off flying at the gun and basically dusted the whole field in the race.  Won it fair and square.

Needless to say the director, Micheal Curtiz (yes, that Micheal Curtiz) called "cut" amid general laughter and appreciative applause.  It fell to him to explain to Dad "kid that was great but you do understand that Burt Lancaster has to win the race, right?"

Oh - so the shot was reset and in the can as you see it in the film.

As a side point the technical director was head of track and field at UCLA (you see where this is going, don't you ...) and he was kind enough to comment on Dad's technique.  This brought up the young man from the Navy and there they were, talking and comparing notes about the war and everything else.

Funny how all these things work out, isn't it?

So I come by it legitimately - and not just the running (as those of you who know me well can attest).

The Reiche International also had a costume section - actually I started the race in that group as it was patently obvious that some real greyhounds were going to burn up the street.  I shared it with the Mommy group and all of us were in front of the walkers and little kids.

Oh - as were the fairies, dancers, witches and the vampire family - son, dad and mom (who did a 5 klick walk in a red sheath dress slit up to here - I just happened to notice).

So, all told it was a hoot.  I suspect that, just like my life had changed by working at the Orchard, things will shift over to allow this new activity to bring out even more energy, just like tango has.

We shall see.