You might be a monster if... (602 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.73 on 25 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Wompom (View user info) at 2007-10-25 22:36:22 EDT
... You have no heart for this story/clip to melt.
While I am fully aware that the average uberite is a heartless ass beast birthed from the small intestine of rabid jerry kids, I figure someone out there might be touched by this. In an appropriate and emotionally uplifting fashion. Ease up on the hate, neighbors.
http://cjcphoto.com/can/
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I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore For two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
User Reviews
Submitted by Wompom (user info) at 2007-10-26 19:42:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-10-25 23:17:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
what the fuck is a cantaloupe smile
______________________
Question of the day
Submitted by beat_raven (user info) at 2007-10-26 17:48:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
all the random caps made the Nearly unreable.
Submitted by darkwulffe (user info) at 2007-10-26 17:06:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I aint gay, yo, but this made me tear up fer a minute.
Stories of human strength are teh roxxorz
Submitted by icarus1987 (user info) at 2007-10-26 13:34:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Then they started a business killing vampires. The local authorities were all "Fuck no, an old man and a kid in a wheelchair can't fight vampires no matter how much they like the Bruins," but the old man strapped a wooden stake to each of the wheelchairs arms and together they pursued beauCOUP de vampires, killing them without remorse or even a whole lot of thought. The business was in Forbe's top 20 within like five days, and Dick got numerous high-fives from the likes of Alan Greenspan and Ben Stein for having personally saved the US economy from a vampire-fueled recession.
True story.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-10-26 13:30:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Real Sports on HBO did a story on these two guys...and so did SportsCenter on ESPN.
Amazing stuff.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-10-26 13:19:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Paralyzed_By_Hope (user info) at 2007-10-26 10:29:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:44:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by swamp_donkey (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:44:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for typing "Dick" 18 times
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hahahahhaha
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I was touched the first time I read about Rick&Dick, but now after hearing this story for the 5,673,457th time, there's still a faint tremble somewhere deep, but nothing earth-shattering. But kudos on reminding people that they might actually be human.
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:44:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by swamp_donkey (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:44:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for typing "Dick" 18 times
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hahahahhaha
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:43:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yea those guys are awesome.
i don't think they ran the boston marathon this year though.. it was the first time in like... a lot of years they hadn't.
Submitted by FALLEN (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:41:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
true deal.
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/teamhoyt.asp
Submitted by keitsith (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:20:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
well, i think
UR GAY !!
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:17:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by FlakMonkey (user info) at 2007-10-26 09:03:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
pretty sure I've seen this on uber before but can't recall when/who by.
still admirable
yes, i know i can't spell.
~Brdn_Nkd
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2007-10-26 07:34:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Maybe I'm a monster, got half way and got bored. Meh Tards and cripples only have limited comedy value.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-10-26 06:56:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Blah blah blah how lovely blah blah blah woops, I don't fucking care!
Submitted by DrogoRoch (user info) at 2007-10-26 06:31:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow.
I'm not crying, someone just dropped some ammonia near me. This is a heart warming tale.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2007-10-26 04:55:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
HAH! SEE HOW LAME AND PATHETIC YOUR PARENTING SKILLZ ARE COMPARED TO THE GREAT DICK WHO CARRIES HIS VEGETATIVE OFFSPRING ON HIS BACK EVEN THOUGH HE HAS A HEART CONDITION!
Fuck that bullshit. My dad is better than that Dick, 'cause his son has a job.
Submitted by DasHeer (user info) at 2007-10-25 23:36:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2007-10-25 23:17:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
what the fuck is a cantaloupe smile
Submitted by ShimishSmortion (user info) at 2007-10-25 23:01:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You deserve it cock sucker. goo Soxx wooooooo!
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:46:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn.
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:46:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
a tear runs down my cheek
nevermind...
someone just farted
Submitted by swamp_donkey (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:44:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 for typing "Dick" 18 times
Submitted by ilikesteak (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:44:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
They should have done it like they did when people didn't have time for such bullshit. Dump him out the hospital window, and if the fall doesn't kill it, the neglect will.
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2007-10-25 22:44:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
ive actually read this story before, but that last line killed me both times.
``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''