Saturday, March 20, 2010

Wrestlemania – for Bill

joe0001

My dad was a soldier, a lifeguard, a wrestler and finally a bricklayer.  I posted this story about him in a comment on Cafe Selavy’s blog and he asked me to share it here too, with a picture. A few years ago a student I had was so impressed that my dad was a wrestler that my dad sent him a copy of this picture with this email:

YOU WOULDN'T KNOW ANY OF THE WRESTLERS THAT I WRESTLED. IT WAS A LONNNNNNNNNG TIME AGO.

WE DIDN'T USE WEAPONS,  WE ONLY USED OUR MUSCLES AND HAD TO BE VERY STRONG AND IN GOOD SHAPE TO HOLD OUT. SOME OF THEIR NAMES WERE-- ANGEL FACE --LOU THEISS- DUSSACK BROTHERS- THE RED DEVIL. THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON I CAME  IN CONTACT WITH WAS HEAVY WEIGHT CHAMPION BOXER, JACK DEMPSEY. HERE IS A PICTURE OF HIM AND ME.  GOOD LUCK IN SCHOOL.

BIG GEORGE

The only story I remember well from the wrestling days, which were before I was born, was this one:
After my mother and father were married he took her to a wrestling match. He was the referee that night for some women wrestlers. During the match the women jumped on my dad, pulling him to the floor and one lady wrestler was sitting on his chest, her legs wrapped around his head. The crowd went wild...people sitting near my mom kept talking about how lucky the referee was and how much he must be enjoying it and how it was all carefully planned beforehand. My mom wouldn't speak to him for days and that was the end of his career.

8 comments:

cafe selavy said...

More, more. Do research. This is a story that needs to be told. The photo is terrific. It is a cultural record of the times. Again, encore!

paulboo said...

Your Dad sounds like a fascinating guy, what great stories he must have told! My Dad was in the fight game when he was young, a boxer in London, quite good by all accounts on the amateur circuit. He continued boxing while he was doing his National Service in the Army; stationed in post war Germany. Jack Dempsey was one of his heroes of the sport so this fabulous shot of yours has some resonance here for me too!!

Rhonda Boocock said...

Thanks Paul! My dad has so many stories. He was in Germany after the war too and Korea so a lot of his stories are from the army days. I wish I had written down more of them but I'm sure he wouldn't mind retelling. Meeting Jack Dempsey was a big thrill for him. I think he met Joe Louis as well but I'm not sure.

paulboo said...

Don't really remember my Dad's stories at all and I can't ask him to repeat them because we cremated him a few years ago now, no time like the present Rhonda, time waits for no one!!

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Rachel Fee-Prince said...

We need more! A series perhaps...

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