I can’t believe it’s 2012; where’s my silver jumpsuit, aircar, and that all-in-one “complete meal and workout in a pill” they promised me 45 years ago?!? I remember watching Arnold on “Wide World of Sports” doing color commentary when Vasily Alexiev was doing his fantastic mega Olympic lifts, and his charm was mesmerizing. Arnold was pretty fascinating too. Just kidding! I was in Junior High at the time, football and AAU tournament Judo being the only sports my short, fat, prepubescent physique could have fun and even excel at. For many a weekend I was frequently disappointed that Arnold wasn’t a full time commentator on ABC, although now I realize what a busy man he must have been at that time. I forgive you, Arnold. Every time he was on though it was a thrill. I just thought he was a fascinating, humorous,  and magnetic character. I was totally unaware of Arnolds bodybuilding megastardom, as physical culture wasn’t really in the mainstream, which truly was my loss in retrospect. I was in the weight room five days a week during football season because we must’ve had one of the few coaches at the time that thought weights were good for sports, and I didn’t mind because lifting weights was something an awkward husky kid like me could show off and compete with the more athletic guys. We won’t get into his love of salt tablets during those old school days, which was a detriment to our performance even though we couldn’t figure out why we were all so thirsty, sweaty, and crampy, but coach Dickerson was a great inspiration and a very positive mentor to us all. None of us had heard of the Olympia or “The Oak”, at least that I remember, but years later I’ve often thought had we known what was going on in California and parts east at the time we teens would have gotten a huge boost out of Arnold’s performances, instruction, and mindset..Kids have a lot more advantages than we did with three channels on the tv, no internet, no programs that use knowledge instead of old wives tales to educate us by, and they have years of sports science and revolution to give them a solid base to train for ANY sport they’re interested in, And Arnold’s inspiration, wisdom, and experience is way more accessible today, and in that I am envious. Although I suppose I can’t gripe; since 1980 I have been inspired and instructed by Mr. Schwarzenegger in his books, movies, television appearances, and a little docudrama I became privy to in 1981 called “Pumping Iron”, and who knew I’d be blogging him on his website even five years ago! Which leads to many other stories, but not today!