Long Ago Memories Of Tim

If you happen to think this is a photo of MJH you are dumber than dumb. I'm the kind of guy who, if on a four foot ledge ten feet off the ground, would start crying and have to have the fire department come get him; sirens blaring. The Queen and I, about eight years ago, were on a walking tour of the Scottish Highlands. Half the time I stayed in camp. As soon as I heard the word 'Highlands' I called a therapist.
You've all been in a position when you see a picture or hear a song then your brain floods with a distant memory in a snap. As soon as I took a gander at the Sir Edmund Hillary type person on the rock in the above picture I thought of a guy named Tim Ferry. He was a grade and high school classmate of mine. He was a better friend of my buddy, Jude, but I was in the mix and that was important. He had nine brothers and it wasn't one for all and all for one in their family. It was more like, fend for yourself. All the Ferry boys were 'fenders'. They were survivalists. In my memory bank Tim Ferry would do anything, any time, any where. He was fearless. Tim was the Steve Irwin of the 1950's except he's still alive.
The Kate Shelley High Bridge, a few miles west of Boone, Iowa, was, and maybe still is, the highest double track railroad bridge in the world. Something tells me Tim took a stroll on it, sat on a railroad tie and looked down. There were only fifty or so Chicago & Northwestern trains using it then---on a daily basis!. If one of them came barreling across the bridge Tim would have tried a right cross across the bow hoping to knock it off the tracks and into the Des Moines River below. Tim Ferry was my idol when I was a pre-teenager. He wasn't afraid to punch a kid in the mouth when he was twelve years old. That action was a sign of manhood. Your average 12 year old aims for the gut. Mouth punching doesn't come until a guy turns 16 and when it happens it's all over town within an hour. "Hey, did ya' hear? Tim Ferry hit Buddy Stumbo in the mouth". That would be worthy of high school year book stuff.
I don't know where Tim Ferry is these days. Jude, knows. Maybe he'll forward this piece to him. After all, once a hero always a hero.