Some people make impressions with their looks, some with their smarts, and others by the way they make you feel. Well the latter is my impression of my old classmate Mark Woodward. He could make a Queen's Guard sentry break their legendary straight face stare. In class he was the everyman class clown. We shared the traditional Irish red hair and freckled skin but unlike me he was very extrovert. He loved to have the attention.
The one memory that always comes to me when I hear of his name is of a particular act of tom foolary he engaged in one cold winter day. We were both in Mrs Kennedy's 5th grade class. Her class room that year doubled as the schools make-shift library. And as a make-shift library, it was furnished with cheap folding tables and left over chairs of every size and vintage. Well it was just before Christmas, and as is typical with the days surrounding a big holiday, not much educating was being done. It was mostly free reading and games. For some reason Mrs. Kennedy left the room, and also for some unknown reason Mark had a bath towel.
Mark being Mark, he was craving some comedic attention, and having in his possession a towel, he proceeded to fashion a knot around his neck creating a cape. I guess he had some strong affection for comic book characters, and I guess top on his list was the character Superman. I say this because that is who he became. He started running about the room jumping chairs and careening around his classmates proclaiming to all that he was "SUPERMAN!!!!" He came running right at me and jumped two chairs and stopped right at my nose and with that big dimpled smile and freckled nose yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'm SUPER-R-R-R-MAANNNNN!!!!", then with a single bound jumped on one of the long tables. Again announcing his new persona, as he began jumping from table to table. By now he had gained quite an audience as every one in the room was now calling him Superman as well. he proceeded to circle the room using his new found super strength to bound from one table to the next. At this point he began repeating the legend of Superman, "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" and on that last line as he was again approaching me, I guess some kryptonite must have appeared in the form of cheap folding tables. Just as he jumped from the next to last table, the table flipped up causing less forward momentum to be developed from his leap than was required to cross the divide of the two tables. I watched in what seemed like slow motion as Mark flew with his arms stretched out in front just like the comic strip character he had become. And with out anything to break his fall except the table he had hoped to land on with his feet, he was now headed for face first and feet up. Gravity and inertia being what they are, Mark completed the laws of nature by colliding face first with the leading edge of the last table.
Well the impact was mostly absorbed by the lip and front teeth of the former superman, but he never cried, in fact he was laughing as were we all. I think he chipped the front tooth on that stunt and I'm sure his mother was mortified, but she was likely used to his stunts.
I tried unsuccessfully many times to get him to re-create that flying stunt. It truly was a beautiful dive.
Todd Johnson
Some people make impressions with their looks, some with their smarts, and others by the way they make you feel. Well the latter is my impression of my old classmate Mark Woodward. He could make a Queen's Guard sentry break their legendary straight face stare. In class he was the everyman class clown. We shared the traditional Irish red hair and freckled skin but unlike me he was very extrovert. He loved to have the attention.The one memory that always comes to me when I hear of his name is of a particular act of tom foolary he engaged in one cold winter day. We were both in Mrs Kennedy's 5th grade class. Her class room that year doubled as the schools make-shift library. And as a make-shift library, it was furnished with cheap folding tables and left over chairs of every size and vintage. Well it was just before Christmas, and as is typical with the days surrounding a big holiday, not much educating was being done. It was mostly free reading and games. For some reason Mrs. Kennedy left the room, and also for some unknown reason Mark had a bath towel.
Mark being Mark, he was craving some comedic attention, and having in his possession a towel, he proceeded to fashion a knot around his neck creating a cape. I guess he had some strong affection for comic book characters, and I guess top on his list was the character Superman. I say this because that is who he became. He started running about the room jumping chairs and careening around his classmates proclaiming to all that he was "SUPERMAN!!!!" He came running right at me and jumped two chairs and stopped right at my nose and with that big dimpled smile and freckled nose yelled at the top of his lungs, "I'm SUPER-R-R-R-MAANNNNN!!!!", then with a single bound jumped on one of the long tables. Again announcing his new persona, as he began jumping from table to table. By now he had gained quite an audience as every one in the room was now calling him Superman as well. he proceeded to circle the room using his new found super strength to bound from one table to the next. At this point he began repeating the legend of Superman, "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound"
and on that last line as he was again approaching me, I guess some kryptonite must have appeared in the form of cheap folding tables. Just as he jumped from the next to last table, the table flipped up causing less forward momentum to be developed from his leap than was required to cross the divide of the two tables. I watched in what seemed like slow motion as Mark flew with his arms stretched out in front just like the comic strip character he had become. And with out anything to break his fall except the table he had hoped to land on with his feet, he was now headed for face first and feet up. Gravity and inertia being what they are, Mark completed the laws of nature by colliding face first with the leading edge of the last table.
Well the impact was mostly absorbed by the lip and front teeth of the former superman, but he never cried, in fact he was laughing as were we all. I think he chipped the front tooth on that stunt and I'm sure his mother was mortified, but she was likely used to his stunts.
I tried unsuccessfully many times to get him to re-create that flying stunt.
It truly was a beautiful dive.
We miss you Mark.