John Currie is 80 years old now, but he is also just 10 pounds away from his weight as a young man. He works out almost daily at the Norwich YMCA swimming laps and lifting weights. He has shed close to 50 pounds over the past several months, he said, and the next order of business is tightening up his muscles.
Currie, a Scot who was born in Brooklyn, bought a farm in the Bainbridge/Guilford area in 955 after completing his duties with the U.S. Navy.
(Note: I asked Currie the correct spelling, he said the English spell the end of his surname with a “Y,” and Scots with an “IE.”)
Currie fell in love with this area as a young man after working on farms during his summer breaks. Currie said it was quite common for young men living in New York City to venture to the rural parts of New York during the summer to work on farms.
Currie said the Brooklyn he knew from the 1930s and 1940s was nothing like the Brooklyn of today. He lived a short jaunt from the ocean, and there were actually chicken farms nearby. Currie also grew up within striking distance of legendary Ebbetts Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Currie says he was never much of a baseball fan, and only attended one game. His dad, however, was a die-hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan. This is where our story heats up.
Currie was a reservist in the Navy, and was called into active duty for the Korean Conflict in 1949. Currie spent his time on submarines, and often spent months away from his home in Brooklyn. Currie was away from home during the amazing National League pennant race of 1951. The Dodgers held a commanding lead over the New York Giants, but lost a 13 1/2-game lead over the final weeks of the season. The two teams ended in a deadlock forcing a three-game playoff. The winner of that playoff would face the powerful Yankees for the World Series title.
The clubs split the first two games, and the final game was decided in the bottom of the ninth with the most famous walk-off homer in baseball history. The Giants’ Bobby Thomson hit the “shot heard ‘round the world” smashing a two-run homer off Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca in the bottom of ninth. That moment in time was forever etched in baseball fans’ memories as Giants announcer Russ Hodges bellowed over and over, “the Giants win the pennant.”
Thomson’s homer was a crushing blow to all Dodgers fans, and when Currie returned home – well after the deciding playoff game – he thought his dad would still be depressed over his beloved team’s loss. The response was not what Currie expected. “Did you see that home run?” Currie’s dad said, obviously still excited about the home run well after the fact. At that point, Currie’s dad revealed that Bobby Thomson was his first cousin, and a first cousin once removed to young John. “I think that kind of eased the blow (of the loss),” John Currie said.
This anecdote proves that blood is not only thicker than water, but also baseball.