Retirement has meant me working out on a regular basis with my trainer Mike at the gym. Not as regular as my trainer Mike would like.
But, you know.
Regular.
The results of the past three years seem remarkable to me. I am down 20 to 30 pounds, depending on the month and the level of my dining self-discipline. And I feel better. I hurt less. I can bend over to pick up Ulysses’ dog poop without uttering a strange noise. I have biceps that nearly fill the sleeves of my smaller t-shirts. I can’t say that I love workouts. But I am happy with the results.
Last week I put on the boxing gloves for the first time and started hitting the boxing pads Mike holds up.
I beat up a punching bag.
I love this exercise.
It’s hard work. I sweat.
I visualize people who have pissed me off in public life and in my personal life and I beat the crap out of them. All in my head, of course.
Rahm. Boom!
Mike is teaching me patterns with upper cuts. Hooks. Jabs. Those kinds of things.
I am like a lot of the students I have taught. I have a hard time remembering sequences of more than three things. So Thursday I dodged when I should have ducked and got smacked in the nose.
It was a good reminder that I’m not interested in actual boxing. I don’t want to hit anyone. Or be hit. I have no interest in getting hurt by a blow to the torso. Or to the nose. But the workout is great, and I love it.
I keep telling Mike I love it. So he promises me we will do it at least one day a week.
The part that bothers me is that I am almost 68 and it took me this long to discover that I love this. I have never been a jock and there has never been anything I was very good at or liked to do.
If only I knew about putting on the boxing gloves 50 years ago.
“I could have been a contender,” I joked.
“You could have been somebody,” Mike responded. He knew the quote, but not the source.
We both laughed. I told him the story of On the Waterfront. It is the movie that the quote comes from. I shared the story of the Hollywood Blacklist.
I tell Mike stories all the time. He believes I do this to avoid the workout.
Which is partially true. It is also the teacher in me.
The recent movie, Trumbo, gives you a sense of the McCarthy Era, the Red Scare and the Blacklist. It is worth watching for that reason alone.
Elia Kazan was the director of On the Waterfront. It starred the great Marlon Brando. It was all about the mob, the New York docks and the longshoremen’s union.
In the fifties Kazan had been a friendly witness, the term used to describe those who testified and named names of their friends and colleagues who had been or were radicals and communists. Kazan had named names before Congress’ House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC).
Testifying and naming names allowed Kazan to continue to work in Hollywood. Those he named were denied work.
On the Waterfront dealt with the mob’s influence in the east coast longshoremen’s union. The hero names names of mobsters.
Kazan used the movie to justify his own actions as a friendly witness against radicals and communists in the movie industry.
The great writer Arthur Miller had been a friend of Kazan’s since their early days together in stage productions.
When Kazan named the names of his friends, Miller was pissed. In response he wrote a play, The Crucible, about the Salem witch hunts. Miller’s message was seen by all as a repudiation of Kazan’s naming names.
On the Waterfront is a great movie. It is rarely seen these days. It is mainly known for the clip of Brando saying, “I could have been a contender.”
A joke. A punchline.
The Crucible is still read by high school students around the world.
Poetic justice.
Fred Klonsky 
Thoroughly enjoyed this piece Fred. You may not be a jock but you hit a home run. It was entertaining, inspirational, and educational! Shucks, had you realized your newfound talent you coulda been a PE teacher. Now get your a$$ back in the gym and give me 10 more reps!
I love all three: the movie, the play, and your commentary!
my most favorite movie of all time On the Waterfront !
This post holds the answer to your wonder as to why such a small percentage of those over 65 voted for Bernie. 65+ people were exposed to the McCarthy era and all of it’s propaganda. They were the ones bombarded with “commies under every bed”. At that time communism and socialism were seen as one and the same and McCarthy did a good job of fanning the fear of the ‘merican public. So those 65 and older who didn’t vote for Bernie are the same ones that bought into the bullshit of that era. And have not learned much since!
Not by my math, Sig. I’m almost 68. I was born in ’48. Came of age in the Sixties. Turned 20 in’68. That ain’t the McCarthy Era. That’s the Age of Aquarius!
He was Senator from ’47 – ’57. Granted as a 7yr. old I didn’t know about him specifically but I do remember the fear of communism and “DPs” which my parents were. A brick was thrown thru our living room window, in the middle of the nite, to show that we were not wanted. I’m 65 add 10 yrs. and you have 17yr. olds prime for anti-commie propaganda. The demographic isn’t 65 to 68. Anyone 75+ was cognoscente enough to be affected by the McCarthy styled commie scare/propaganda.