Pressman enters exercise class with 'strip show'

Times-Gazette head pressman Martin Jones was a big hit at Zumba Tuesday. I had dared him to join me, and of course, that worked. Men are suckers for dares.

Of course, being an (amateur) actor, he made a grand entrance, sauntering into the exercise room after the first song started, calling out loudly, "Where's Philleo?"

He stripped off his cut-off blue jean shorts that he was wearing atop his exercise pants, and a few of the women (or maybe it was just one or two) actually began howling.

He wore the cut-offs over his exercise pants as a wisecrack on me, based upon an anecdote I had told him prior to this fateful meeting:

When I was a sophomore in high school, circa 1984, I moved to Florida. That was the first time I had a dress code to adhere to. I thought it was funny that I had finally made it to the Sunshine State, and I wasn't allowed to wear shorts at school.

And then we had "Beach Day." Everyone was allowed to dress in full summer regalia for this one special day.

That morning, I proudly donned my favorite shorts -- a cut-off pair of Levis. I thought I was hot stuff, until I got to school and kids started laughing at me. Apparently, redneck chic was not en vogue in Florida, as it was in my hometown of Knoxville.

I was a little embarrassed, but really everybody was pretty cool. The ribbing was just in fun, and from that day on, everybody at Lake Mary High School knew me as "Tennessee." I was the one who actually had the guts to wear cut-off blue jeans to school.

Martin was the one who actually had the guts to wear cut-offs to Zumba. But the laughs didn't stop at his entrance.

We had only just begun ...

Zumba is always fun, but Tuesday, it was a riot. Martin brought a new spirit of levity to the class, at least in my eyes. If you read my column a few weeks ago about the four types of birds, you wouldn't have to think hard to figure out that Martin is a Peacock. And he was strutting his stuff Tuesday in fine feathered fashion.

When the class cha-cha'd to the left, Martin shimmied to the right. When we grape-vined to the right, Martin cha-cha'd to the left. All the while, his fan club (consisting of one or more of the single women in the class) cheered him on, and at one point I thought I heard somebody encouraging him to shake his diminutive posterior.

Now this behavior does not exemplify Zumba -- usually we concentrate and work hard to get the exercises right, and the steps are not easy to follow. We all struggled at first.

But Martin made a real show of it, and it was a lot of fun. He's threatened to return next week, which is a good thing, because I wish there were more men involved. We had another man join us last Tuesday, and he said he would be back, too.

After a couple of Zumba classes at the beginning of the week, I took another trip out of town, during which I ate heartily and failed to exercise. I have had another non-productive week, and still weigh 225 pounds -- my new wall.

I have to admit that I haven't ran at all since last week, and I'm beginning to get concerned about the upcoming United Way Spooktacular 5K slated for Saturday, Oct. 25, at H.V. Griffin Park.

I'm committed to participating, but I'm doubtful I will be able to run the whole thing. I know I can run two miles without stopping, but 3.1 miles is a stretch. I will probably have to walk a little.

But, that's OK, as I've said before, the important thing is that I get out there and try my best.

-- John Philleo is editor of the Times-Gazette. He can be reached at (931) 684-1200, ext. 218, or by e-mail at editor@t-g.com. This column is scheduled to print every Friday.