Dad's Schoolmates

As I prepared for a committee meeting at work yesterday, I came out to the front desk on my way to the chambers. A man was speaking with the staffer at the desk about the meeting start time.
I stopped, looked, and asked the man, "Are you Frank Mesiah? If so, you went to high school with my father."
"Yes, I am Frank," the man, the president of the Buffalo Branch of the National Asociation for the Advancement of Colored People, replied wiht a smile. "Who is your dad?" When I told him Edward Hosey, he replied, "Oh, yeah, I remember Ed. He was a quiet guy ... played tennis."
Yes, indeed. My father played tennis at Grover Cleveland High School, where he and Mr. Mesiah graduated in 1946. Dad woked his way up to first singles, and taught my late brother Brian and I all we knew, and had a lot more left, about the game in the mid to late 1970s. I played tennis in high school, too, but Dad beat the heck out of me every time we played, and enjoyed getting me running all over the court until my tongue hit the ground.
Oh, and my father's nickname in high school? "Fireball." Brian and I always got a great kick out of hearing our dad referred to as that.