DAVID PARR

Two Steps Back  

Ten o’clock at night,

too early to be late, too late to be evening.

It feels like a time of missed opportunities.

The moon outside my window is large,

a full face looking down at my predicament.

The dog lies at my feet. He is also waiting.

The currents of air from the open front door

still carry the smells of the earlier time

and suggest that anything might enter.

I think to shut it, but stay in my chair,

daring something to break the mood. 

Still the silence indicates what is coming.

Many times, as many as heart beats,

people before me

sat with the same apprehension.

This did not comfort me

for I saw the unfocused faces in squalid rooms

with frayed rugs held in place by crooked tables

surrounded by faded paint and years of waiting.

I remembered smoke in rooms like this.

People lit up then

and lived with the shadows of gray

curling upward at no pace

before becoming part of the wall or ceiling.

This memory did not comfort me either.

For a person with only a short time until everything changed

I was fixated on the minutia of my memories.

I sensed more than saw

a fluttering outside the door,

a moth to the light maybe

or something else.

I stood up slowly

not wanting to disturb

the tension of potential concerns.

The dog also is up

and takes two steps back.

Jack and I

My Father was a golfer. I have joked that with our name, Parr, it was destiny. As I grew up I was aware of famous golfers through the interest of my Dad. I had read about Bobby Jones and in the 50’s I followed Ben Hogan and Sammy Snead, and then Arnold Palmer and later, Jack Nicklaus. My view is, the greatest of these is Jack Nicklaus. His career is unparalleled. I joined fans everywhere in watching his accomplishments and I had other connections to him. 

As a student at Capital University 1958 through 1962 I became aware of Jack Nicklaus who, across town at Ohio State, was the same class rank and age as I. He was already a local hero as a young golfer. He had a reputation as an outstanding basketball and football player as a youth, and was the focal point of the Ohio State Golf team. He won the US amatuer titles in 1959 and 1961.

I began a radio career in 1962 as he was taking the number one ranking from Arnold Palmer, coincidentally I was working in Palmer’s back yard at various stations in Pennsylvania, the last one was in Altoona Pa. Palmer was from Latrobe, a nearby town. Through those years I was the lone NIcklaus supporter in the land of Arnie’s army. In 1967 I returned to Columbus Ohio to work in radio and advertising for the next 40 years 

In 1967 I met Jack Nicklaus. I was working for a Columbus radio station, and He had agreed to record public service announcements for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. I was sent to his house along with a representative of the charity. I had three scripts, a tape recorder and a microphone. My assignment was to record his readings of the scripts; no interviews or any other business. That’s a very simple assignment but as I was young and about to meet a world famous athlete I was nervous. We arrived on a weekday at 9:00am at the NIcklaus home then in Upper Arlington. 

We were welcomed by Barbara Nicklaus, Jack’ wife. I was 27 years old, so was Jack.. She explained Jack would be down in a couple of minutes and seated us in their living room. He called down the stairs, “be there in a sec.” 

I was apprehensive. He had won his second Masters Tournament the year before and was already regarded as the best young golfer in the world. I wasn’t sure how welcome I was in his home and obviously he was just waking up to come down and record the announcements. My guess was he was upstairs regretting agreeing to this appointment.

He came down the steps saying “you are lucky you caught me in the morning, my voice is lower.” He was gracious, friendly and very confident.

He recorded the announcements in two takes and as he finished the phone rang. He excused himself and was gone for a few minutes. “That was a funny line,” he said as he returned, “we are to go swimming with (the caller) today and he said it looks like rain.” Jack added, “I told him to do something about it and he replied, ‘you can’t do something about the weather, it gives you away.” I remember we laughed, thanked the Nicklaus’s for their graciousness and I happily returned to work thinking I like this guy.

I followed his career over the next 9 years as he was on his way to breaking Bobby Jones’ record if 13 majors and become the first player to complete double and triple career slams of golf’s four major championships.

We met again in 1976 at his own designed golf course in Muirfield as I covered the first Memorial Tournament for local radio. I interviewed him several times over the early years of the tournament. The first time I asked him if he remembered the nervous young announcer in his home those 9 years earlier. He didn’t until I reminded him of the line from his friend that he thought was funny.

I played the Muirfield Course in a Media Day event after that first tournament and upon completing my round I turned my clubs into the Pro Shop for a cleaning. A few minutes later I was summoned from the snack bar by a caddie who said, “Jack would like to see you.” 

I hurried over wondering what etiquette faux pas I had committed on the course?

Jack Nicklaus smiled as I approached, “These are your clubs?” he asked. “Well they actually were my Dad’s clubs, he passed away three years ago and I like playing with them.” “This one”, Jack said ” is valuable.” He was holding the putter, it said Tommy Amour on it. “Are you interested in letting it go?” “ I have a friend who would be interested in it.” I replied that I wasn’t since it was one of the few things I had of my Father. He understood, He had lost his father too.

Since that time I have read with interest the accounts of the Golden Bear as a player, as a course designer, and as an entrepreneur. And I have often repeated the line; “you can’t do anything about the weather, it gives you away. “