Fat People

You hardly ever saw fat people growing up. My father had two associates, the Badaracco brothers, Fats and Lonnie, that he conducted business with from time to time. They had a biker bar on the north side of town, rough crowd. Fats was a stock car driver who lost his left arm in a racing accident out at the fairgrounds one Saturday summer night. He was kind of a legend around town. They raced those old 39' Fords back in the day. There were some great pile ups. My friend Gary Arnone's father Frank worked in the back track, and we went to the races every Sat. night for years. Frank and Barbara were wonderful people. Franks was a stone mason, and engraved memorial stones.

Both Fats and Lonnie weighed in over 600 pounds. I saw Lonnie take a bet from a guy at the bar who said he couldn't eat 20 Vals hamburgers. Vals was the predecessor to McDonald's in Danbury. The guy lost the bet. The Badaracco brothers use to scare the shit out of me when I was little. I would cry sometimes when the old man pulled into the parking lot. "Please don't let me go in.", I'd say. The brothers both lived upstairs over the bar, and Lonnie was always in bed when we went over there. Lonnie was bigger than Fats by a good 50 pounds. Fats ran the bar. Yeah, a one armed bartender.

I had a friend in grade school, Alex Faminia, and he always made fun of this huge kid we had in school. I can't remember the kids' name, but one day this fat kid had enough.  He was so mad at Alex that he sat on him, and broke both his legs. Alex got pretty good at walking on those crutches. He later became and FBI agent, I think in Tucson, Arizona.

This is all true. I couldn't make this crap up if I tried. I don't have that kind of imagination. These  large obese people were the exception to the rule. You didn't see many obese or overweight people when I was growing up. Obese was the exception rather than the rule. I know fat is politically incorrect, just like Oriental or midget, but 50 years ago, I can't believe I'm even saying 50 years ago, people called obese people FAT, and they were an oddity. There was the fat lady in the circus. That's all changed, and it all happened in a scant 30 years.

Sometime around 1980 the percentage of overweight and obese people in America shifted dramatically. As of 2008 more than 68% of Americans are now overweight or obese, and that's five years ago. That's over two-thirds, and I'm a member of the club, and this is the year I'm not renewing my membership.

One-third of all American children are overweight or obese, including babies and pre-schoolers. And if your a fat baby you'll most likely be a fat adult, and you'll either develop diabetes, have a stroke or heart attack,  high blood pressure hypertension, or cancer, and most likely die an early death.

Heart disease runs in my family. The Polish are famous for having heart problems. My mother Mary died of a heart attack. Doctors still don't think women can have heart attacks. My grandmother Stefania had an enlarged heart, and died of a heart attack. She was a big girl. My father Rocco, heart attack or stroke.

Now, I'm not afraid of dying. It's part of the deal, you live, you die. I don't have diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. I wouldn't mind being a really old man, and rockin' into my 80's, and cussing people out. Mom was 86 when she passed, dad was 65. So, I'm going to beat this disease, disorder whatever the fuck people call it NOW, while I don't have any of those nasty health problems.

Changing my eating habits, THIS IS NOT A DIET, is something I'm doing for me. Loosing this weight, and getting back to my old self is my 60th birthday present to me. It also has the added benefit or getting my lovely Geraldine off my back once and for all about my lousy eating habits.

 Skinny Me Circa 1972

Skinny Me again circa 1977

That's it for today.

Peace,

Make Food/Not War




Food Consumption 12-28-12

Breakfast: cereal and 1 banana, yogurt 6 oz.

Lunch: big salad, dandelion greens, beets, avocado, cucumber, black olives, cucumber, frisee',    lemon and olive oil dressing with herbs/garlic, 2 hard boiled eggs.

Snacks: nuts, raisins

Dinner: 7 oz. tilapia pan fried with s & P olive oil and herbs of Provence, salad with eggplant, red bell pepper, dandelions, frisee', dressing, grilled eggplant and brussel sprouts.

exercise: 4 miles trail and street walks