Share your stories of Joe here...

[21Guns]

What are your PERSONAL memories of Joe Paterno? I thought it would be nice to have a thread in which we all share our stories of how Joe touched our lives. It could be funny, or important, or an anecdote, or a friend of a friend, or any kind of story. I'll start with this one: My father, who is 83 years old, recently shared a story in which he was having drinks at some sort of fundraiser, or event, and all of the staff from the early 70's was there, and Joe asked my Pop if he wanted a drink, and Pop said "I'll have one, thanks...", but for whatever reason, when he turned to tell Joe the drink, Joe was already getting the drinks. When Joe came back, he had two drinks with him, and he turned to my Pop and said here you go!..."An Old Fashiioned...WITHOUT THE JUNK", hahaha! Now, I guess, that an old fashioned without the junk means, without the fruit crushed in the drink. Back when Joe was a younger man, he certainly did, on occasion, like to have a cocktail when a social occasion arrived!

 

[kgilbert78]

I wish I had one--the one time I was close to Joe, at the reception for library donors, I was too scared/shy/not wanting to bother him to talk with him. Oddly enough, however, I did get to talk very briefly with Woody once or twice as a grad student at tOSU.

 

[LionJim]

I wish I had one--the one time I was close to Joe, at the reception for library donors, I was too scared/shy/not wanting to bother him to talk with him. Oddly enough, however, I did get to talk very briefly with Woody once or twice as a grad student at tOSU.

Same here. He was walking by outside the Forum and I just let him walk by without a "Hi, Coach." It's silly, but I've always regretted not stopping him for a moment, saying something. Go check the Sticky Threads about "Stories about Joe Pa" and find psuro's contribution, it's a nice story. It would have been my own story, most likely, if I'd stopped the great man just for a moment.

 

[lionlurker]

Funny thing is, the place I ran into him most often was during Mass at Eisenhower. It was uncanny how I ended up next to him going to Communion.

 

[kgilbert78]

My brother was with me that day--and also said nothing. But he got a second chance later on and has a photo with Joe in his home office.

 

[21Guns]

Didn't see the sticky. My apologies. Mods feel free to move my post to the sticky thread, thank you!

 

[LionJim]

I see a lot of similarities between Joe and my dad, Jesuit education, literary, they liked poetry, two years apart in age. When I got my BA (not from Penn State) I picked Browning's "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed it's grasp Or what's a heaven for?" to put under my yearbook picture and only years later did I realize that it was an old standard of Joe's, as well. Little things like that, it's a reminder of how lucky we were to have him.