mickey zezzo for the dayton daily news
I was honored to attend a presentation of a Conneaut High School diploma to an old soldier who left school to enter World War II.
The honoree was me — and it was a lot of excitement for an 81-year-old WWII-era veteran and my wife of 59 years, Arlene.
Ashtabula County Veterans Commission vans — fully trimmed with stars and the American flag — picked us up Sept. 15 at our home in Huber Heights and delivered us to a bed and breakfast on the shores of Lake Erie
It was an eight-hour round trip to Conneaut, so the Vets Commission used a relay system involving two drivers on the way there and two drivers back.
The affair took place at a Conneaut Board of Education meeting, with Arlene and I as special guests.
Following the presentation I spoke and reflected on some CHS yarns.
I recalled playing on the 1945 CHS football team, about how I went out for end because I liked to catch passes.
However, I weighed in at 129 pounds and didn’t consider it was a two-way era and had to also play defensive end.
I got a letter that year — probably for bravery — but occupied a reserved seat at the end of the bench.
Early in the third quarter of the season’s finale at Geneva, the coach Elmer (Buck) Peaspanen called time out and our quarterback ran to the sidelines. Peaspanen looked down the bench and called me.
Needless to say. I was a young man in shock.
His message to me: “Billy (our QB) broke his hip pads and we have to borrow yours.”
We were leading, 28-0, and late in the last quarter, the coach decided to clear the bench, sending everyone in. He had forgotten I had no hip pads.
I braved the heavy rain and dashed out onto the muddy field, holding up my pants with my left hand.
Years later Coach Peaspanen, who wrote letters to me in Korea, laid on his bed at his cottage on the lake dying of cancer. We talked about his “Super Sub” and the day at Geneva.
Conneaut played and defeated a Beechwood team Sept. 16, but a special halftime ceremony and presentation of a CHS leather jacket to me was rained out.
The school principal and the superintendent of Conneaut schools came to the car where I was sitting — protecting them and the jacket from the rain with umbrellas.
I stepped out into the rain, but those weren’t raindrops on my cheeks.
Contact this writer at (937) 236-6032; mickeyz@zoomtown.com.
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