Here's another TRUE STORY that some of you will find it hard to believe.
I have a good bud who was a national contender for many years and he has a good number of "overalls" to prove it. You all know him.
OK, it's Ernie Santiago,
We were sitting on the beach one day soaking up the rays, when we see this unreal looking musclehead kid of about 18 - 20 strolling up the beach looking around as if he lost his favorite dog.
Eventually he sees us sitting there and makes a beeline as fast as he can.
Wothout a word of introduction, he flops down on the sand like a big overgrown puppy and says, "WOW! I finally found you guys. I been looken ever since I left New Jersey!" (We happened to be 5,000 + miles west of NJ at that time in a place called Hawaii, so we were damn impressed.)
Then he starts talking faster than a speeding bullet about how much he appreciates and respects Ernie and he wants to find out all he can so he can go back to N J and be just like him.
Well this kid was pretty damn close to Ernie's contest condition already so we told him it would only take a matter of weeks if he would start cutting up on a raw fish diet.
And he did just that. And joined us on the beach each day to talk about his diet and his gains and his plans for the future. But he refused to talk about his past!
All we knew was that he was a musclehead kid from NJ who decided to search for his hero and found him in Hawaii.
It didn't take Ernie and I too long to realize that we wern't talking to a rocket scientist here. Just one big loveable kid whose heart was in the right place and enoyed our company talking about stuff he loved more than anything else in the whole wide world. And that included Bodybuilding and anything and everything and everyone that had anything to do with bodybuilding.
This mutual friendship went on for about 6 weeks and "Stan" became our closest new friend and confidant.
One day Stan asked me if I would drive him to the other side of the island to see the big waves he had heard about.
So we hopped in the car and headed north to see the 20+ footers that were hitting hard.
Stan was super impressed and got very emotional. "I never thought I'd live to see the the day these monsters hit the beach! This is so unreal!" .
And he took my hand and shook it hard and thanked me profusely and told me he wanted to take me someplace good for lunch to show his appreciation.
So on the way back, we stopped at someplace good for lunch and Stan asked me if he could tell me a story about how he lived in New Jersey (Mamouth, I beleive).
And so his story strted, but only after he made me promise not to laugh ......
"Kevin, I've always believed in Superman and ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be just like him. When I was still in grammer school, my mom knew just how I felt, so she made me a Superman costume for Holloween. It was great and fit perfectls and was warm enough to go trick or treating without a jacket.
I loved that Superman suit so much that I decided to wear it every day and even to school, but my mom convinced me otherwise saying that if I wore it to school, all the other kids would learn of Superman's real identity.
So I gave that some thought and quickly came up with the idea to wear my Superman costume under a suit of clothes just like the "real" Superman did.
So the next day, I got out of bed and put on my Superman suit and then hid my identity by wearing my one and only suit and tie.
And then I found an old pair of glasses.
And off I went to school, checking for telephone booths along the way.
Kev, I did this for three years straight! I was fine in winter but I almost died during the hot summer months. As far as I know, no one discovered my true identity except some neighbors in the area who had to call on Superman for help on a few occasions!
The neighbors who learned my true identity promised never to tell and I soon became the neighborhood hero.
Then I got a job at the local newspaper ,,,,,,, NAH, only kidden, But I did get a job with the railroad loading and unloading heavy gear and it soon became evident that I could never unload heavy geat like the real Superguy could, so I started lifing weights and eventually grew out of my Superman costume and Clark kent suit and got a chance to cool off a bit during the summer months.
Then I saw some magazines with Ernie's pictures in it and dicided to take off work and find him and shake his hand.
And now look! You guys are my best friends of all time! That's a real super accomplishment in itself!
And then, for some unknown reason, Stan started talking about steroids. Their chemical makeup and how they worked in the human body and stuff that I figures only an educated physician should know.
All at once he became a PHD. The transformation was amazing. But then he almost cried a bit and said, " I think lots of friends I'm gonna have some day will get sick from taking too much steroids! And I don't want to see that happen."
And then he became good old Stan once again, like a big puppy wanting to take a run on the beach.
One day Stan was gone. He took off and went just like he appeared. We think he went back to packing trains on the East Coast but none of us are sure.
But we sure did miss him and we sure were glad he was a part of our lives for a few brief weeks.
Now whenever I trip over to the North Shore to see the big waves of winter, I look around to see if Stan is also there enjoying it. So far I have not found him.
I'm grateful that this sport gives us this kind of opportunity to meet the good guy characters that it attracts and generates. They bring back memories that are worth repeating
Thanks, Superman! You saved the day even if you couldn't leap over tall buildings with a single bound! And I'm still waiting for that picture of you in the telephone booth.
