Life Lessons from
MY OLD HEROES BY PERRY HIGMAN
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When I was in Gatewood Elementary School in Seattle in the early 1950s, my parents and grandparents often praised men and women of action and accomplishment they knew and admired. I listened carefully. Their stories and their lore were part of my upbringing. Nearing retirement in 2006 I was pondering my own life, so I decided I’d try to look up some of those old guys and see how they’d turned out. What luck! Some were still alive. A pleasant nostalgia began to set in. I had idealized these men throughout my boyhood: a cowboy, a race car driver, a hydroplane racer. How would it be to check in with them now? Who were they really? As an adult, what could I learn from them? Lesson one: People are easy to find. The internet works. I first heard about Deb Copenhaver (born
3rd Act magazine | summer 2017
1925 in Creston, Washington) in an argument between my dad and his father about who was the best cowboy of the day. I was in the fourth grade and Deb was World Champion Saddlebronc rider in 1955 and ’56. I met Deb in person when I was 62. “Don’t get me wrong,” he told me that first day. “I loved my time in the sun in my rodeo years, but my life is much richer now.” As my friend now for 10 years, I know he’s right. Mira Slovak (born 1929 in Cifer, Czechoslovakia) became my dad’s hero in 1953 when he flew his Czechoslovakian Airlines DC-3 to freedom in West Germany. He became my hero when Bill Boeing Jr. hired him to drive the Miss Wahoo unlimited hydroplane in 1956. He was Mr. Boeing’s personal pilot as well. As kids in West Seattle we figured out where his apartment was on Alki Beach. Mira won a number of races in the Wahoo, and went on to win the national championship in Miss Bardahl and the Tahoe www.3rdActMag.com