OK! Where to begin?
I've been told by some damn tuff "investigators'" to start at the beginning, and end at the ending!
So that's what I'm gonna try to do in an effort to give you young sprouts some idea of what the lifting of heavy things was way back then and how the 'game' was played when there was almost no one who knew anything about it..... nor how to play it.
And apparently that still holds true today.
So I'll start at the beginning and end when it ends and hopefully give some of you guys and gals and ed-u-ma-ca-tion which won't help anyone one damn bit ... but may be of interest to a couple of the 'usual suspects' on this GetBig Board.
I encourage some of you other old time characters to jump in and agree or disagree, but you young-uns, I hope will only listen because there most likely is nothing you can offer other than rumor, gossip, conjecture, or plain old bullshit ... mixed with an occasional "I-wish -iit was-really-true!", wised-assed comment from the peanut gallery.
The beginning is the late 1940's!
And the ending may be tomorrow!
But in the meantime there is a story to be told if anyone wants to listen.
A story the way I personally witnessed it!
Everything is relative... but back in the 40's the words 'bodybuilding', 'olympic lifting, ''odd lifting', 'power lifting', 'health food', 'supplements', 'gym chains', 'personal trainers' , and a thousand other terms we are so familiar with today .... were relatively unknown.
But there were a couple of guys who were doing uncommon things of a physical nature and starting to get the recognition that they felt that they deserved.
One such individual was a friend across the San Francisco Bay by the name of Reeves. He was an exceptional kid whom a local newspaper wrote an article about the fact that he never had a cold and never had a cavity.
And it just so happened that he lifted heavy things at a small gym called Ed Yarick's in a downtown section of Oakland, California.
And every Northern California kid spent summer weekends 72 miles north of the Bay Area in a small resort 'settlement' on the Russian River called Rio Nido.
And that's where every Northern California kid met every other Northern California kid during the late 40 and early 50 summers.
And that's where and how we met Steve and many other personalities who aren't a part of this story-line.
And that's when Steve's fame was just getting started ... but very slowly.
And then there was an eccentric gym owner by the name of Jack Lalanne who ran a gym on the fifth floor of an old hig-rise building on Sasn Francisco's Market Street when that part of town was not too popular.
Jack's claim to fame was the fact that he pulled boats across the San Francisco Bay while swimming. And he did that more than once or twice which proved to be the start of his long term success.
And there was wait Baptiste whom the vast majority of you have never heard of ... so that's all you'll hear about Walt. But Walt was a pioneer.
These three and a small handful of other Northern California-ites were the 'founders' of something completely unexpected. Something that would take the world by storm sometime in the not too distant future.
And there were other parts of the USA where other characters existed just as well. Mainly within the New York, Florida, and southern California areas.
I say 'characters' because these individuals were thinking and acting differently that society's norm. "Pioneers" might be a more courtious term but some would be undeserving of so polite a term.
These characters were lifting heavy things for hours at a time and eating strange food-stuffs. A lifestyle completely unknown and strange to the general population, no matter where that 'population' existed.
And when that happens ....animosity arises!
To be continued .... ( if there is any interest.)
