A Signature Trick

I met Peter at Humber College in 1972. We’d both enrolled in journalism. He had just turned 18. I was 20. Between classes we often went to the gym. Peter was fit and lean, and just out of high school football.

One of our regular stops on the gym circuit was the trampoline. I still have vivid memories of Peter’s signature trick. He called it the dead man’s drop.

He’d get on that trampoline and bounce up, and up, until he was as high as he could go. Then, he’d half flip and drop head first towards the mat. Down he’d plummet. No matter how often I saw him do the trick, I always anticipated disaster. At the very last milli-second, he’d tuck his chin to his chest, execute a forward roll, and come to rest standing near the edge.

He knew I sweated each time he did it. And he actually cut it closer and closer over time. He never doubted his ability to pull it off. He was like that with many things.