Featured photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
We sat our root-beers down and coach relayed to me a friend of his wanted to get together and he laughed when he told him, “sorry, can’t, a guy is coming over to interview me for a book he’s doing on me.”
That just sounds weird doesn’t it?
But here we are. I hope your not getting too tired on our walk.
We can stop at the artesian well for a minute and get a drink if you would like and I can start to relay my coaches biography to you, while we wet our whistle.
First though I would like you to think about this verse as I tell you about what I learned during my talk with my coach and researching his-story a little bit…
Acts 17:26
26 “From one man he made all men of all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the exact places where they should live.”
I knew Mr Peterson in my youth, from elementary age until I was fourteen, but he had a whole life in my home town that I really knew nothing about.
My curiosity was sparked by the newspaper article that mentioned he had coached the wrestling program for nineteen years.
Imagination sparked!
My alter ego ‘The Emerging Man’, needs to know where things come from.
I have found once I wrap my mind around the source I can get a better understanding of the specific topic, or person in this instance, and with all the info I can then formulate an informed opinion of said topic or person and settle my mind about it.
What shapes a man?
Family, Friends, Faith, Hometown and Service all came up as we talked.
Coach talked very fondly of his hometown.
It was the first thing he mentioned after we caught up a bit of what I remembered of him as a school counselor using D.U.S.O the Dolphin in elementary school.
(Developing Understanding of Self and Others)
Hometown: Baldwin Wisconsin
Born:1947
In 1947 the new Buicks were pretty snazzy, The Count Basie Orchestra was on the radio and Howdy Doody was on television…
… if you had one.
“full-scale commercial television broadcasting did not begin in the United States until 1947.”
From Grolier Encyclopedia Article by Mitchell Stephens
Baldwin WI,
Located in western Wisconsin, way western Wisconsin, closer to Minneapolis Minnesota than Eau Claire Wisconsin lies the 2.91 square miles of Baldwin WI, 54002.
“The Biggest Little Town in Wisconsin” as described in an article found on the web.archive.org.
Located 30 miles East of Minneapolis and 40 miles west of Eau Claire off of I94 and having Highway 12 running East and West and Highway 63 running North and South, it looks like you could get to or go anywhere from there!
As I researched the village and it’s history the write ups I found describing the community reminded me of my coach and his personality.
The writer for the Baldwin homepage on the internet describes his/her home well and as I read these words I could see Coach growing up in that town and turning out the way he did…
“If a village starts out with good principles and a firm foundation as Baldwin did, half the battle of it’s future has been won.”
“Baldwin was designed as a small country town and though we’ve grown, we still possess that sweet country town flavor that so many desire.”
~Baldwin Home page (don’t know the writer yet)
If that doesn’t describe the guy I interviewed and knew as a kid, the only thing I need to do then is to sub his name in place of the village!
I think I will.
Are you done getting a drink?
We can’t lolly gag around here all day.
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