DONALD TRUMP, JUST ANOTHER SMALL TOWN BOY?

via dagospia.com

By paying attention and listening harder, I’ve learned what it means when men are who they say they are, and when they aren’t. All gets strained through a small town filter of right and wrong, good and bad, the perceived values of small town life where everything happens on the front yard.

I’m certain Mr. Trump is no exception, as I suspect others share a similar filter with differing results.

What if Donald Trump was just another small town boy who grew up to become The Donald?

My high school community, as I recall, included sports teams, academics, and a small town social life that included underage driving and drinking, though not at the same time. My dad let us take his company car to the corner store for pop before anyone was old enough for a drivers license. The first freeway being one hundred miles away was an important part of the ‘let them drive down to Famer’s Market’ decision.

In the realm of speculation, how would Mr. Trump have done at your school? How would he have done in North Bend during football season?

As a Bulldog he’d need more bite than bark to avoid getting crushed like the rest of the new guys on varsity. There’s Mr. Trump as a sophomore in the meat grinder where he had to fight off a blocker and tackle the guy with the ball. Sounds easy until it’s a drill for linemen where a two hundred and twenty pounder drives you back and another big guy runs right over you.

In the mud.

That’s why football uses pads and helmets, and not raincoats and umbrellas. Mr. Trump would have fared as well as anyone at first, but would he get up and do it over and over until he made the tackle or couldn’t get up? That’s the big test. With no water break.

Small town reputations are built on persistence where staying down is never an option if you plan on going to school the next day. The only excuse for getting plowed time after time was not using the skills the coaches taught. Call it technique. Or survival.

With a small town background and football in the mud, Mr. Trump would never have assembled the top military brass to hear him complain about an attack on America after the FBI raided his lawyer’s lair. Officers in  the armed forces know the difference between an ‘attack’ and a law office raid. What were they thinking after hearing the Trump legal interpretation? Not enough football, enough bootcamp, enough self-imposed deprivations for this one?

If Mr. Trump had failed at football team, what was the other option during football season? Cross country? Probably not. More likely he would have been a ground breaking male cheerleader, or mascot. My wife has a relative who was a high school mascot and he turned out as expected.

To save football face, Mr. Trump would need to join the wrestling team.

During football season the wrestling team started early work outs. Mr. Trump as a Bulldog wrestler? Those guys came in two flavors, tough and mean. Gary West was both and he would have had a ball working with Mr. Trump. If that wasn’t enough, after West graduated to the University of Oregon and national Greco titles, Mr. Trump would have had Vern Brecke in the room to pick up the slack on tough and mean.

More than a few guys give up on wrestling because it’s hard, too hard. Sometimes it seems like opponents want to injure people on purpose. What’s the difference between hurt and injured?

The Bulldog wrestling room placed an emphasis on Greco-Roman wrestling where guys learned how to throw. They had leather throwing dummies from Sweden to practice on. You learned how to throw to avoid being thrown. Mr. Trump would have learned valuable lessons as a throwing dummy.

This small town advantage isn’t for everyone. Ask someone where they’re from and they give a vague answer? “Back east,” or “Southern California.” They are small town and ashamed. Or they think you’re to stupid to know even their state.

 When you hear the vagueness, are you suspicious of them? Why not call your town by its name?