Pheidippides & Me

By Kevin Roy McGraw

Greed, for a better word, is good. Thats what Michael Douglas character, Gordon Gekko said in Oliver Stones immortal 1987 movie, Wall Street.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483630625

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Kevin Roy McGraw.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

.

Rev. date: 05/22/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

132184

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Acknowledgements

Other Cool Things To Which I Connect!

Introduction

Greed, for a better word, is good. That’s what Michael Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko said in Oliver Stone’s immortal 1987 movie, Wall Street.

Alternatively, can you also say Cancer is good?

No, of course not. However, depending upon how you look at it, and the nature of your circumstances, perhaps you CAN learn to accept cancer. I AM learning to accept it, and my wife Jen makes it easier for me to live with it.

No question though, cancer changes your life. I’ve lost a lot of mobility, but I still do enjoy my life. I see my family all the time now—and they see me—and that’s pretty great (as long as they like seeing me)!

Plus, I am not managing people or difficult situations. Things are much simpler now.

I use a walker these days, and I can’t remember my most recent conversations very well, but it’s good to be above ground!

*     *     *

On another note, I loved my Dad, Roy, very much. He spoke directly to Jen at our 1994 wedding in Pebble Beach—Jennifer, fasten your seat belt, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Well, my Dad was right, it HAS been one hell of a ride!

So, this is my journal. It covers a lot of ground. It is not meant to be a full and detailed memoir, but instead, moments in time that I have enjoyed. And moments that have just stuck with me.

Chapter 1

The early years

I AM going to address what my Dad said in his speech to Jen, but first, I’m going to take you back in time, to Brantford, Ontario, Canada, a simpler time and place, where I grew up.

*     *     *

I do not know for sure, but I do believe that Chief Joseph Brant did ford the Grand River, claimed the land and was the initial person to establish Brantford.

In today’s time, Moose and I canoed down the Grand River too, but we had more beers than the Chief. We were lucky, Moose and I—all we had to do was sit in the canoe, with our Labatt’s 50, and fish would jump into the boat. That’s a true story!

I was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, sixty miles east of Brantford. But my Dad must have convinced my Mom to move to Brantford, because all of my memories are from Brantford. Besides, he knew the bootleggers in Brantford and not the ones in Toronto.

Brantford versus Toronto—that’s like Supertramp verses Simon & Garfunkel. We Brantfordians have always preferred Supertramp.

Although, my sister, Chris, lives in Toronto today, with her great family, as she thought Brantford was too small a town. Personally, I like small towns, as they cultivate good people and good pubs. John Cougar Mellancamp inspired the Small Town and I liked that!

Brantford has good churches too, with cathedrals and all the regular church stuff… that is, if you’re into churches. I’m not, except architecturally speaking, but my Mom did try!

My sister Chris and I were actually confirmed in the Catholic Church when we were young, and attended Catechism classes by mail. Frankly, I just couldn’t get into it. But it was a good story—a great movie script for Charlton Heston!

I remember drinking some liter fluid from the can, when I was 2 years old. Luckily, the can was watered down from a recent rainfall. I was rushed to the Brantford General Hospital, to have my stomach pumped out. As I recall, hoses circled all around me, like the villain in the very first Spiderman movie.

That was the first time that I heard my Mom get mad at my Dad. And then she got mad at me once, years later, when I was skipping stones on Lake Tahoe and one caromed off my sister’s head. My Mom got really mad at me. Luckily, Chris was OK; in fact, I’m sure that it was the best thing that ever happened to her!

Anyway, growing up in Brantford meant hanging out with your neighbors and playing road hockey.

I did the usual kid stuff, like playing road hockey, hunting frogs, playing chase, building forts and collecting bugs. We rode mini-bikes. We built rafts and took them out onto the pond. We would swing