Spring of 1989 was also the time of year where Gospel Outreach would have its annual jog-a-thon fundraiser. The event was held at McFetridge park where there was an oval track. Money would be raised by each runner getting a monetary commitment from sponsors for each lap completed. Participants would have 60 minutes to run as many laps as they could. The jog-a-thon had been taking place ever since I had been a student at G.O. starting in the spring of 1984. I can remember as a 9-year-old running 30 laps and the following year running 33 laps. In 5th grade, I didn’t attend G.O. so I didn’t participate in the event. I don’t remember running the jog-a-thon in 6th grade but I definitely recall 7th and 8th grade. In 7th grade I had just bought my new Adidas tennis shoes. They were similar to what tennis star Ivan Lendl was wearing at the time. Please note that I just described them as tennis shoes, not running shoes. There is a huge difference between a running shoe and a tennis shoe. Running shoes have cushioning meant to absorb the impact as you run. Tennis shoes don’t have any of that cushioning. They’re flatter to give a player the ability to feel the court and facilitate side to side movement. But what the hell did I know? They looked cool and I was going to debut my shoes at the jog-a-thon. I ended up partnering with this little Mexican kid Jose who was 2-3 grades behind me. English was definitely a second language and he almost always had a happy smile on his face. We knocked out 44 laps together and I developed blisters on my feet from the shoes. God bless little Jose, he probably could have cranked out 45 or 46 laps but he was kind enough to stop with me on the occasions where I had to give my feet a break. I wonder if Jose ever became a runner. Can’t remember his last name but for a kid his age to be comfortably keeping pace with a 7th grader was pretty impressive.
The 8th grade jog-a-thon was a solo affair, I had arrived later than most of the other runners and was the weather was temperate. I also wasn’t wearing tennis shoes this time so my feet wouldn’t be an issue. I remember cruising to 50 laps and there weren’t many kids who had ever hit that number. I wasn’t naturally a distance runner by any stretch of the imagination. I didn’t like long, testing runs in general. I enjoyed running fast. That still holds true today. All these years I thought that I had blown the class out of the water with my total of 50 laps. I knew Danny had run around 43 or 44 laps but outside of that I wasn’t aware of anyone else who was close. Well, when I reconnected with Angie Payne recently said she thought she had run 60 laps!! Angie was a runner built for distance, so I believe that it was possible but I’m going to go on record and say that I need someone else to corroborate her total! I would have really enjoyed running with Angie that day, a kindred spirit from a competitive standpoint. It also would have likely provided the class with the opportunity to see me taken down a peg or two. I’m fairly certain that she would have outlasted me over that type of run.
As spring bloomed, we started what was in effect our victory lap of grade school. The end was now in sight and by April I was now going to different high schools to determine where I was going to attend school. Gospel Outreach Christian High School was not a practical choice as far as my mom was concerned. I recall going to open houses at Notre Dame High School in Niles and Loyola Academy in Wilmette. Both of which were Catholic schools that are still in existence. It was determined that Loyola was too expensive, so I took the entrance exam at Notre Dame. I remember going in for the testing and seeing one of the kids I had gone to school with at St Edwards in 5th grade. His name was Kevin. We exchanged looks and may have acknowledged each other but nothing more. It’s just one of those distinct moments that I can clearly remember. Nowadays testing for high school is a complicated process in Chicago. My daughter tested for both public school and Catholic School testing. She took 4 separate tests that involved huge preparation. None of that back in 1989! One test, that was it. No special preparation, just show up and take the two hour test and go home.
Gospel Outreach School and High School Memories 1988-1992 