in the company of greatness

by Karen Dums


Meeting someone you've only seen on a book jacket or web page is a peculiar feeling. They suddenly become real. Not a list of education, accolades or accomplishments printed on a page. Not a number of books published, a doctorate earned, a face seen on the television screen. A hand shake reveals they are just people. People like you or me.

Last Thursday, Oct. 17, Wisconsin author/historian Jerry Apps paid a visit to Third Story Writers Guild. He then did a presentation in the auditorium of the Park Falls Public Library. He is "real people" indeed.

He stood behind the podium with the ease of one who has been in that position many times, and with humor and honesty told of his days as a farm boy. Of his attendance at one-room school. Shared the story of his affliction with polio, more than 50 years past now, but a time that haunted him in all the years since. It changed the course of life, whether he knew it at the time or not.

With his editor's urging he did what writers do with the leftover feelings from that affliction. He wrote a book about the experience. Told the world of the pain and suffering of a disease with no known prevention, or even an abatement for the pain back in those days. He talked of it freely. Spoke of his fears and the accompanying feelings of failure. Fear of admitting he'd even been stricken with the disease, convinced people would think less of him if they knew. Failure because he was unable to perform the physical tasks his contemporaries could. Tasks expected of him in that time and place. Gave credit to those who helped him most during that time -- his father, who was his "physical therapist" in  unique ways; his eighth-grade teacher, who helped him pass the dreaded test that would ensure his entrance into high school; the baseball/coach/basketball coach/forensics coach/drama coach/algebra teacher/geometry teacher (in small schools such as Wild Rose, Wisconsin's circa 1947, staff members wore many hats.) a dragon slain. "Limping Through Life" has been out for several months and we now know that without that dreadful disease, it is most likely Jerry Apps, the author/historian, would not exist. For him a negative became a positive. Wisconsin history is the better for it. Readers have much to enjoy because of it.

No one who has gone through a debilitating time would wish for it so that it could become fodder for the pen. But in so many instances, as in Mr. Apps case, it becomes just that. And we never think that in helping us, it might help others too.

Kudos to the man who overcame his personal fears to become an advocate for polio sufferers. Thank goodness he had the wherewithal to pursue a vocation that helped increase the manner in which he can pursue that advocacy.

It was good to meet him. To see he's just regular people. Regular people like you, like me.  We've all suffered through something. What good might we take from it? Make of it? Food for though.