See Part 1 of this Diary by clicking::::::::
here.
Cooperstown Country Club (approx 1961), by Private Files
I'll never forget that golden summer in Cooperstown, New York, so long ago I can only estimate the year was 1955. My favorite tennis player was Ricardo (Pancho) Gonzalez then, and he has been ever since.
Pancho Gonzalez Serving (undated), by the International Tennis Hall of Fame
And I was playing a handsome son of Cooperstown wealth, Bill Hadley, in the finals of the Country Club's youngsters' tourney, and I split sets with him in a glaring Sunday sun. But what mattered most and still matters most to me was the incontestable fact that Bill was 18 years old and I was a mere 14.
Did I win you ask, or lose the third set and the tournament? I think I a won three games but I know I lost.
If I'd only had Pancho Gonzalez's serve!
About the same year, my parents took me to see Jack Kramer's Tour in our hometown of San Antonio, inside because it was in the winter, and Pancho played Lew Hoad on the lightening fast rubber mat they'd placed over the hardwood floor. Pancho served his cannonball first serve into the forehand court just two times and into the backhand court just two times, and followed its perfect placement into the net four times, and drop-volleyed Hoad. For a love game. That, I'll never forget. Or did I dream it?
The Dork (my sister) in the 5th Grade (approx 1949), by Private Files
And that IS all, folks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*****
I have a law degree (Stanford, 66') but have never practiced. Instead, from 1967 through 1977, I tried to contribute to the revolution in America. As unsuccessful as everyone else over that decade, in 1978 I went to work for the U.S. Forest (
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