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Mike Vidakovich
I taught fourth grade with Jim Benson for 14 years, starting in 1988, at both Glenwood Elementary and Sopris Elementary school. Along with Fred Davidson, Bette Hart, Jackie Durrett, Paul Driskill, and Lesyle Grigsby, I felt like we had an all-star cast of teammates at that grade level. We were the Lakers of elementary education.
I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, but I was very lucky to be surrounded by such caring and dedicated human beings.
When I first met Jim and his wife, Mary, who was brave enough to teach kindergarten, I walked away thinking these people are too good to be true. As the years wore on and the blind corners of life took their toll on us all, I realized that everything about the Bensons was genuine and true.
Mike Vidakovich
As you read this column today, you may be convinced that I am just old and full of beans. The former is certainly true, and the latter most likely is representative of the truth also.
But I do believe that on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 31, around 4 p.m., a long-lost running buddy came back unexpectedly if only briefly to pay me a visit. I think he wanted to make a point, and to offer up a small dose of my own medicine for all of the good-natured ribbing I had dished out to him years ago.
He came to me in the form of a shadow.