Skip to main content

Oh Yeah



Oh Yeah!

About five years ago my friend and former fight-training partner Peter and I were standing on Jerome Blvd in the Bronx. If you are unaware of the area, it can be a little bit of a rough neighborhood. It was a sunny day. Yet, it was quite cold out. We were waiting for a fight gym to open up.

As Peter and I stood there, a strange man with a wool cap started to walk towards us. I didn’t recognize him. He appeared to be up to ‘no good’. I felt we were his target. I wondered as I saw Peter looking around for others, as we apparently thought we were going to be attacked. So, one would have thought. That is if you were Peter or I in the place we were at. The area was fairly desolate.

The closer the man got to us. Peter began to back up. I got pissed. I stood my ground. I glanced at Peter, I could see the look of uncertainty in his face. And when you’ve wrestled and thrown leather with a guy like Peter who fought MMA in Japan. If he’s backing up, maybe you should too.

However, I’m a little indignant. I’ve been through enough ‘rodeos’ to know anything can happen. And like in the 1976 movie “Network”. Peter Finch plays Howard Beale, a news anchorman being put out to pasture, he rants: “…And I’m not going to take it anymore!” Is what was screaming through my head. As well, that would be me. So, as uncertain as I was at the outcome on Jerome Blvd that day. I decided I would take my fear and get righteous. The rage built up so quickly in me, there would be no stopping what I would do to a criminal at that moment. I was that pissed.

The man saw me. He went to say something a criminal about to do something would say.

I said, “Oh yeah.” I looked him straight in the eye. Peter backed up.
The man then said, “Jody, it’s me.” I replied, “Huh?”  Still thinking we were in danger.  It was Ed. He knew me. I hadn’t seen Ed in a year and never with a hat or wool cap covering his head. As well, I don’t think Peter ever met Ed. 
I scolded Ed, “Don’t do that. I was going to attack you if you got any closer.”

A minute later he walked Peter and I back to a car that had a friend and co-worker in it. Peter knew who Bob was.

Ed relayed to Bob, “Jody, didn’t know who I was. She was going to fight me.”
Bob replied, “You don’t mess with Jody.”

Going back two years prior to this, Bob had taken me out for a cup of coffee to talk business.

He remarked, “You are so different when you’re around your kids and your husband.”
I replied, “Well, you know that’s who I am there. I can’t let them know who I am within twenty-fours of a fight. I don’t want anybody I love touching me. ” 
Bob shakes his head, jaw dropped. As he had seen me in so many facets of my life for years. He responded, “You’re like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

---Jody-Lynn Reicher

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2023 Holiday Letter from the Reicher's

Well, I didn't think I'd be doing a Holiday Letter this year, but here goes... The Spirit of Norm is in the air. As the wind whips with minus a true snowstorm.  In hopes the Farmers Almanac was correct, I pray to the snow gods. Rain ensued the month of December thus far. We have nearly tripled the amount of rainfall usual for December in New Jersey. And I've witnessed its treachery. Storms such as these hit us hardest in July. Then remained fairly intense through til about early October.  Our daughters are doing well, Thank God.  Their Dad would be proud of them. Our oldest Sarah, now a Junior at UCLA pursuing her degree in Chemical Engineering. She's digging the whole California scene. Which I thought it was for her. She's had some good traveling on her off times from school. For her March 2023 week off, she drove her and a few friends out to Lake Tahoe and went downhill skiing for a first in nearly 5 years. She had to rent the ski equipment.  Funny enough when ...

She's Not Exactly Betty White

She? Yes, she is not exactly Betty White. Nibbles is cute and funny, though. She's one of our two bunnies now nearing 100 years old. She at times appears to need a wheeled walker absolutely, with tennis balls. But instead, I've now spotted her, little rugs covering our living room to dining room floors. Not too many of them, for she would think she was close to a litter box and then there'd be a big mess.  Right now, I'm working mostly remotely. This allows for me to check on her four times a day. Too, I've made my office temporarily in our dining room.  And thank God for all that. Because I have to make certain her right leg that can no longer function as part of her hopping mechanics to get around, does not get hung up on the side of the litter box. I have to clean her hay excursions, she cannot always control her hay poops, never mind her bladder. That's where my excessive laundry loads have headed. No big deal. I barely use the dryer. I have a drying rack a...

Balloons Are Amazing

Especially the ones that have helium in them. Balloons for some reason seem to be a sign of happiness. I remember as a child when our family would go to the annual Fireman’s Picnic near Labor Day weekend. It was an annual event put on by the volunteer fire department my dad belonged to. I can’t remember what I loved the most about it. Yet, I could say the helium balloons were in the top three items at that celebration of sorts for me. The hamburgers were a gift from God. Not the kind of food I saw regularly, because it was once a year. I can’t recall any other time I’d eaten a hamburger at home. We could afford chicken. We’d eaten squirrel, which had actually been shot by one of my dad’s friends when firing of what I believe was a BeeBee gun. And venison was had when one of my dad’s friends hit a deer with his late 1960’s early 1970’s suburban vehicle in Maine, totaling it of course. Too, for a few summers we’d received massive amounts of blue fish for free. It’s still my favorite food...