Dad was a United States Secret Service agent and was on protective duty for the last year of Ford and 1st year of Carter. We had moved from Los Angeles to DC for the protective duty assignment but his Dad (my granddad) died and then his brother died in a matter of 6 mos, so we packed up the Chevy Station wagon and drove from DC back to Southern CA. It changed our lives as he was on a track to maybe one day run the whole damn agency...he was very well thought of from what his buddies have told me over the years. Anyway he became Special Agent in Charge of Dallas field office in the 80's and thus started my conversion from CA surfer kid to Texan.
One story that has always stuck with me. Most summer Saturdays, he would drive me and my 2 brothers plus our 3 cousins to Huntington Beach to boogie board. Rules were, we couldn't set foot in the ocean until he got back from his run. He'd bang out 8 miles in an hour. The 6 of us would be lined up on the edge of water sitting on our boards, leashed up. Once we would catch sight of him on the horizon, we would all get so pumped, ready for a day of catching waves.
He would get back, strip to his 70's era running shorts , take a dip, pop open a Lowenbrau (or 10) and put on Vin Scully, if the Dodgers were playing, Chick Hearn ( he called him Chicky Baby) if the Lakers were....or Johnny Cash if not. He was a legend. My cousins called him "Big JIm".