A Bump in the Road

When I knew that I had the job at North, I immediately went to my parents to let them know.  As usual, my mother took it in stride.  She was happy for me, but she would have been happy for me if I had said that I was moving from ditch digger to ditch digger captain.  My father, on the other hand, was beside himself.  This was his dream for me, and maybe for himself.

You see, my father was a very complex man.  From the time that he was in his teens, he was headed in a direction that my grandparents didn't understand.  He didn't do well in school,so when World War II came to his door, he gave up education and answered the call.  First, he was too young to enlist, so he took over a local gas station where he was to ration gas, oil, and tires to the public - at the age of 16.  When he was of age, he joined the Navy.

After being injured on an aircraft carrier, he was sent home with the GI Bill.  Encouraged by my grandfather, a Methodist minister, he enrolled at Taylor College.  Even though my grandfather was on the board of trustees of the college, my father managed to get himself kicked out.

Then he met my mother.  She was graduating from Manchester.  They got married.  During his freshman year, my mother was pregnant with me.  They had no money and my grandfathers were both ministers, so they couldn't help financially.  Dad dropped out to get a job.  What he didn't tell me, and I just found out recently, was that he started to get involved in athletics at Manchester.  I found his picture in a yearbook that he probably never saw.  That simple picture explained a lot to me, four years after he died.

What happened that summer was that dad was proud of me.  He let everyone know.  When telling everyone who worked for him at the gas station wasn't enough, he started to tell the customers.  One of his regular customers was Jim Costin who was a sportswriter for the News Sentinel, and I had coached his son Mike in summer baseball.  Jim was very interested in the story and wrote it all down.

The next day the story ran in the News Sentinel with a picture that I am sure my father gave him.  It was a great article, and for a very brief moment I felt pretty special.  That was until I got a call from Human Resources that I needed to meet with Bob Cowan.  I had no idea why he would want to see me, but I did know that he was in charge of all hiring and firing in the district.

The meeting was not cordial.  It was the first of two meetings that I would have with Bob Cowan, and neither went well.  The second meeting is an entry that will come in the future.  Bob Cowan had been a star football player at North.  He had coached football at North.  He was a Redskin through and through.  He also was a hardliner.  You do what you are supposed to do or face the consequences.

His message was simple. "You had no right to leak the story of your hiring to the press.  After talking to Jim Costin, I found that your father was the one that gave him the story.  That is the only reason that you will not be fired.  It is my job to inform the newspapers and television about hirings in Fort Wayne Community Schools.  Is that clear?"

That night when I was watching the local news, I saw my picture again.  The story of hiring was augmented to include "according to human resources director Bob Cowan."  Dad called to ask if I saw the announcement.  I told him that I did, but I never told him about my meeting with Bob Cowan.