Ya don't mess with Stig Hawk, he's a big lad!
Regarding my "size" > Pros: never got hassled during any of my hitch-hike crossings of the USA (try a stroll through 2AM Loredo, TX) or the many nights sleeping rough.
Con: I look like a circus bear on a tricycle when riding a scooter. Nothing off the rack fits. My new 14Wide tennis shoes from Amazon just hit the front door!
Worst memory relating to my size: During Army Medic training they put you in formation according to your size. Big guys up front, shortest in the last rank. Any training requiring a partner - you pair with the guy beside you.
I was paired with a nice kid from a small, struggling farm. Not much
extra food there, I learned.
Well, the Army meal lines have no shortage of carbs ....or gravy. I watched with alarm as my partner grew a little every week....while I shrank in the Texas heat and humidity. All of our physical training just seemed to bulk him up.
I went from 220lbs to something like 170's. He had to be pushing 250 in our final weeks.
To "graduate" we had to pass a Physical Training course - the last of which was the "100 Yard Man Carry".
I guess they figured there might well be a time coming, in sunny S.E. Asia, when a medic would need to grab a fellow in a "fireman's carry" and remove him some distance from danger - or.... take him to lunch.
I will report that I
did get my bulky partner across the finish line on that hot miserable Texas summer afternoon.... but he was rather worse for wear by the time I drug
and kicked him across the line....in an elapsed time which might still be on the record books, so to speak.
Always wondered what happened to him - he was deathly repulsed by blood. I tried - but can recall only faces, not names of my classmates....and the medical training center at Ft Sam Houston cannot, or will not, supply me with a roster of names from that summer - to cross-check for names on the Wall, in DC. All but a few were sent to Vietnam after graduation - but we were scattered throughout the country, most of us working alone with a unit.
BTW - the heat and humidity (& smell) in Vietnam when first exiting the plane was .....well, I returned home at 167lbs. (my wife later shared with me that, for her, for a few weeks, making love was a bit like hugging an "enthusiastic bag of corners"......until I put some weight on.)
Stig
