1st Henley

The favorite time of the year: winter training! I can hear the groans from all assembled already. However, the best part of winter training is always story time.

These are pictures of my senior year in high school, leaving for our trip to England. Can anyone guess who in that picture is the coxswain? For some lunatic reason, the cheapest way to get all these kids to England was through St. Louis, on TWA (total waste of airfare). That made for a LONG flight over, with me stuck in a middle seat. I believe it says a lot that TWA is no longer in existance.







Here's Todd Jesdale, our coach, trying to figure out where the airline has put our airplane. They don't seem to have an answer, and when the glasses come off, there will be trouble.




Our oars, packed for shipping. We brought our own over, because there was never any guarantee that we could rent a set. Renting a boat wasn't too much trouble. Notice that the oars were not painted. Todd never did paint the blades until it became a requirement at some regattas the following years. We loved it, making comments about "stealth oars" and other such nonsense.





Ah, the REAL reason of this post. My dear sister's romance with the stroke seat of the boat, Andrea. He was an exchange student that year from Italy, joining us in the fall. His exchange family had a daughter on the team, and he joined up with great enthusiasm. Andrea was a lightweight, but rather tall and VERY strong. He and I had some great erg competitions over the winter. I usually won, but the margins were very close and didn't make up for my extra 30lbs over him. We never seat raced, and I think that might have been a good thing.

Anyway, Andrea and my sister became an Item about a month before we left for Henley. Contrary to everyone's thinking, I was in favor of the match. Andrea is a great guy and my sister can take care of herself. Besides, if Andrea had ever screwed her over, I could have been a little slow on the catch, letting him impale his kidney on my oar......

It was really funny when Andrea asked my permission to date my sister. Really, that's what friends should do. You don't start dating a friend's sister or ex without bringing up the subject first. After all, is a good friendship worth endangering over a relationship?

But Andrea really took it kind of far. The tone of that discussion resembled the conversation I had with Emily's father before I asked her to marry me. I think that he expected me to deck him or something. Great times.

Categories: Memories, Rowing, Photo