As a team member of the "Volunteers For Bruce" group I have been impressed by the wide diversity of people that know Bruce.
I am presenting "How do you know Bruce" as a topic that everyone can contribute to. Please use the comment box as your platform to write your story of how you know Bruce.
He will read these stories and hopefully gain inspiration to fuel his journey to recovery.
John Briggs (jib)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Well, sorry if this is a bit long….but Ill try to keep it short…after all….you asked!
ReplyDeleteI, Rob Tremp, better known by some as “Woody;” got to know Bruce around 1990. He was one of my ski coaches. He was one of the best ski coaches I ever had. He has a very unique approach; calm, cool, collect, a style that I gravitated toward. One of the best ski races for me occurred at Western State Championships in Red Lodge Montana; some of my best results were there. Bruce took me, Pauly, Shreck, Vargas a few others to the races….
When traveling afar at such a young age, a competent, confident well qualified coach is required to act as the support system that a 16 year old needed….that was Bruce, he commanded a great deal of respect on the hill…. A funny story from that trip:
On the way home from Montana, in the Van, middle of the night, ND Badlands, full moon kill the headlights type of driving, all were asleep but me, my shift was over, woke up Brucey (of course we would change drivers without stopping, had it nailed down like clockwork)….Bruce punches in the mix tape that was hanging out of the deck, speakers on 10…out comes Pauly’s Gangster Rap tape that he painstakingly mixed together and “spent hours and hours on…” Scared the heck out of Bruce….swerved a little….window rolls down immediately…not a word is said…. out goes Pauly’s precious Rap tape without missing a beat……the whole van cheered and applauded….Pauly managed to sleep through the whole thing….
Bruce also introduced me to the front end of the Coal Pile. Those were some of the best times, and some of the most frustrating times. I quickly helped myself to a reputation of a buffoon resulting in numerous comedies of errors of sorts…..I turned Vezina’s hair gray….made his nostrils snort, steam actually came out of his ears and watched his eyes turn blood red on a number of occasions….sorry about Red Fox when I hanked the jib on upside down….sorry ‘bout losing the topping lift in Muskegon in the lead…..sorry about breaking everything imaginable on the boat….sorry about all the other things that I can’t mention on here….Through all of my antics…..when I finally thought I’d made Brucey mad….when I thought he’d had enough….I found that he would only shrug it off with a smile and say something clever, sum up the situation with a “life goes on,” or “can’t let the little things get to ya” etc. etc. ….If I were him…I’d a left me in southern Illinois…and yeah sorry about that time too!
I watched Bruce closely during my high school years and learned a lot from him about my own behavior, personality, and some valuable life lessons. With this, he became unbeknownst to him, a role model to the “young woodman” that I’ve tried to and still do emulate in my own life. I think a big part of my personality and who I am today was and is from the great person that Bruce is and will be for a very very long time.
Thanks Rob, What a great reflection on Bruce. Just perfect.
ReplyDeletejib