Dad's Wild Punch

Some of you younger folks may not know that your Grandfather (and Great Grandfather)Robert Samuel Klein was a boxer and a wrestler while in the Army way back in the 1930's. (Mom made him give up wrestling when he was thrown out of the ring and practically landed in her lap!) His personal experience naturally created real fondness for watching wrestling on television until it changed into "entertainment" but he absolutely loved boxing. When we were kids, boxing was televised frequently and you could always count on Dad being glued to the TV screen. There was one memorable bout sometime in the 1950's that I will never forget. I don't know who the opponents were, but I do remember how involved and excited Dad became while he watched. Dad had added on to the house in Millville to give him space for an office area where he could work on blueprints for new houses. This room more or less doubled as an additional living room. Well, this one evening I was sitting with Dad watching the "fights" and tried to imagine Dad in the ring slugging away at his opponent. Since I was only 15 or so and Dad was an old man of about 40 (LOL), I just couldn't picture it. As the fight progressed Dad got more and more agitated and started to tell the boxers what to do. Some of what he said was not polite to say the least, but he was in another world. As the fight heated up, so did he and he began to throw half punches, yelling at the fighters. Then, he was swearing and sitting on the edge of his seat, throwing punches at the TV screen. He threw a terrific right cross and the next thing I knew he flew out of the chair and landed on the floor.