I run most mornings, and have since my 20s. I ran when few did, remembering being stopped in Italy by the police to find out what exactly I was running from.
“Signorina, who is’a chaz’ing yooo’?”
I’m convinced it’s one of the reasons my body has held up, since it does best in what I call, fitness flight. And one’s immune system toughens when you brave the elements, sparring with Mother Nature despite her many mood swings.
Farmers are rarely sick since they’re outdoors all the time, hardy and healthy, like our second president, John Adams, who came from a farming family. His son, our 6th, John Quincy, swam in the Chesapeake every day while in office, didn’t matter what the temperature was.
He lived to be 81, and his dad, 91, during a time 60 was considered old age.
Harry Truman fast walked daily before it was fashionable, in loafers no less, while the Secret Service tried keeping up. Imagine how fast, Give ’em hell Harry, would have been in a pair of Nikes.
Lincoln, all 6’3 and then some, loved a good stroll, to stretch those lanky legs no doubt.
U.S. Grant also, when he was president, preferred getting around by foot after his 4 years in the Civil War, marching, when he wasn’t perched on his horse, Cincinnati, that is.
JFK, as we know, enjoyed a good swim, usually in the company of naked, nubile women, providing Jackie wasn’t around of course. It was the same pool FDR enjoyed, a gift in 1933 courtesy of a fund raiser by the New York Daily News knowing swimming was good for his struggle with Polio. It was why when Nixon had it drained with a floor built over it for a bowling alley, the country moaned. It’s still there though, peeking beneath the years of its many incarnations.
Teddy boxed.
Ike played golf.
How did we go from me running, to leaders of the free world sparring and putting?
Hell if I know, but it’s interesting, now isn’t it?
SB
Susannah, I read this to Pookie before he left this morning. Such interesting tidbits. I’ve never been able to run for very long. I get a stich in my side. However, I was really fast for the bit I could run.
I love your escapade in Italy. So funny!
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I remember being stopped , like I had just robbed a store. No one ran back then. I was en enigma, in shorts…:)
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All that health can’t be good for you. Just sayin’ 😉
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Very funny Mick.
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p.s. love the new photo.
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David did it. Our fellow writer from Iowa. I love it. The skyline for me says it all, like a visual resume. 🙂
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I’ve never been able to run but I sure can walk fast!
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You and Harry. 🙂
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You take tender care of yourself in a tough way. I prefer admiration to emulation.
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You’re cute. 🙂
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I am also a runner. I think it gets your metabolism racing, which is a good thing. If we sit around too much, our motors are running too slowly, if you ask me (and no one did!)
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But your two cents is well appreciated. I know so many people who do nothing. Even a car that no one drives is supposed to have its motor turned on once in a while or it rusts. Something like that. 🙂
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We’re meant to be outside, it’s in our DNA.
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Like birds and squirrels…:)
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A thought-provoking post, Susannah. You pointed out some very excellent facts (many of which I never considered) in support of the argument that we need to get out there and exercise. The benefits speak for themselves, especially if you’re an individual in favor of longevity. An idea, speaking for myself, that I happen to be fond of—and I suspect I’m in company. 😀
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I feel fortunate I’ve been running for so long because it’s become the norm, and my gratitude that I can do it so easily and regularly is over the moon. Nice hearing from you.
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😀
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That’s so funny! Vim and vigor were chasing you, not that it would have translated.
And really . . how in the hell do you replace a swimming pool with a bowling alley? No WONDER he was kicked out!
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That’s so funny. That should be properly inserted into his Wicked, I mean, Wikipedia page. 🙂
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That pool was probably some cool shit. And his best idea was to replace it with . . . a bowling alley. Insulting is what it is.
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Well, let’s put t this way, if that pool could only talk…:)
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If that pool could talk, Oliver Stone woulda bought it.
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Did ya hear he’s leaving his ego to Science?
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Well played . . .
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I’m still laughing at…no wonder he was kicked out.
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Well . . .he deserved it for that alone!
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I used to run a bit in university, but I prefer mountain hiking, if I can find mountains. One of the best parts of living in Korea. Thanks for the athletic history lesson. 🙂
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I should change the title to that…Athletic History Lesson. I don’t know how it turned into that. You know how muses can be so insisting. 🙂
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My kind of history lesson right here Grasshopper! We must keep moving before we can’t.
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You said it sista.
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You are a good leader, in your own way. You give advice by sound, often funny, stories. You try hard to lead by example. And, of course, you are very attractive – that certainly helps.
Scott
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This could go on a job application. I do try to lead by example as I fall over, get up…fall again. Like a rodeo clown. :()
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Or a great general or president…
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