The Crippled Kid From South of Town

The Crippled Kid From South of Town(Don Kesinger) The Crippled Kid From South of Town by Don Kesinger

I was born in 1931 which were times of poverty, hardship, dust bowl and health disabilities. I was crippled until I was 9 years old. I couldn’t straighten my right leg and sometimes neither leg. Sometimes my dad had to carry me! At school I sat around talking to the old janitor while the rest of the kids played softball. I finally outgrew the problem by the time I was 9 years old. At that time I decided that I needed a bicycle to build up my legs so I could become an athlete. I managed to buy a used bicycle for $3.65. I found out my Granddad was getting 5 cents a mile to take me to school. I thought I should get at least a penny a mile for taking myself to school which was 6.5 miles round trip on dirt roads. One month I got $.83. That’s 83 miles on my bike. By the time I was 13 I was the fastest runner in grade school and by the time I was 15 I was the fastest runner in high school.

I was so happy to not be crippled that I don’t think I ever complained about work no matter how hard it was. I was happy to work, happy to run and any thing else. I made work part of my physical training. I was working on our farm raising wheat, milo and cattle. I started making the harvest when I was 14. Luckily we didn’t have as much land as we did later on. My job was to scoop all the wheat. In a couple years we obtained more land to farm and raise wheat. My dad even offered to buy a powered grain auger to handle all the wheat. I said give me the money for school and I will scoop all the wheat by hand. And so I did.

At first all we had to scoop was a few hundred bushels of wheat but later on we had thousands of bushels. I scooped a thousand bushels a day for every harvest. Every shovel full I was thinking this builds more muscle, more muscle, more muscle, and it definitely did. Besides the wheat there was soil to turn, manure to haul, cattle pens to clean, chicken houses to clean, fence to repair, etc. I deliberately did them all the hard way to build muscle. All summer long except at harvest time I ran 2 miles almost every night after we quit work at 7:30 PM. I didn’t jog the 2 miles, I ran them hard to build more stamina. I would come in from running and dad would laugh. I said “what is so funny?” He said “you have mud running down the side of your face.” I had just come from the dusty field and ran which created sweat to run down my face through the dust.

Then it was to the shower. The shower was a barrel of well water setting on a tin roof. On a day when the sun was shining you got a warm shower. On days which were cloudy you got a cold shower. That must be some kind of training also.

All of this physical activity did its job. I was in superb condition for football, basketball and track. I was a starter for three years in high school and I played two years in college. It has led to longevity and good health. When I was in college I was loading rocks which weighed up to 450 pounds. Then I blew my left wrist. Later, when I was in the Army I was doing pullovers with 450 pounds. A fellow army man who was six foot eleven tall said I was nothing but talk so we had a little tussle. Just because you are tall doesn’t mean you are strong. He never had a chance. I brought him down on his knees and he was still almost as tall as me. Then I pushed him over on his back and I sat on him.

Many years later, every time I see my picture I am thinking the crippled kid from south of town is doing good. My football playing grandson saw my picture and said, “Wow, you were really ripped. How come I’m not built that way?” and then he left. To this day I haven’t been able to corner him to tell him this story.