Tribute to Kim Grimm

6 years ago a good friend of mine passed away on today’s date.  I saw a Facebook post from her mom this morning and it hit me hard.  I had written this blog post several days after I heard of her passing and I felt the need to share it again.  Kim was such a special person and life just isn’t fair sometimes.

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Approximately 20 years ago, in Junior High, I first learned of this girl named Kim Grimm.  I was a nerdy little 7^th grader who was already 5’9″, had hideous glasses, bad hair, and just enough talent to play fairly decent basketball.  She was a scrappy, skinny girl who actually knew how to handle a basketball and could shoot better than most boys AND we were in the same conference.

I’m not going to say we were fast friends or anything like that, not at this point anyway.  In most rural areas and small communities, people generally know the standout players from each school within the school districts.  Kim was definitely the standout player for the Riceville Wildcats.  All through junior high and then through high school, we competed against each other in basketball and softball. Kim may have played volleyball and ran track, but for some reason I don’t remember.

Her team won some games and my team (North Central Falcons) won some games but I honestly don’t remember if one school was consistently better than the other.  Fast forward 6 years to my favorite memory of Kim from way back then.  We had both just graduated from high school and it was still summer, smack dab in the middle of softball season.  It was June 28^th, 1991…my 18^th birthday.  We were playing Riceville and Kim was pitching.  Riceville was up by 1 and I was up to bat.  Somehow I managed to hit the ball far into right-center field and even as slow as I was, I managed a double.  I got 2 RBI’s with that hit and we were up by 1.  We held our lead and won the game.  As we were slapping hands with her team she grabbed my hand, smiled, and said, “Happy Birthday Holli”.  How cool is that?  Her team just lost and she still wished me a happy birthday.  I’ll never forget it.  After knowing Kim I now realize that it was simply a typical Kim response.

That fall I signed a Letter of Intent to play basketball at Waldorf College.  I soon learned that one of my teammates would be Kim.  I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was!  I had always gotten along with Kim and I liked the idea of knowing at least one person on the team.

Kim is number 20 on the bottom left.

Playing College ball was tough for me coming from a 6-on-6 basketball experience, but Kim took right to it.  She was one of those teammates who would run beside you when you needed some encouragement…and I needed it, a lot.  I have somewhat fond memories of Kimmy running beside me saying, ‘Keep it up Holli.  You are doing great.  We are almost done.’  Not sure I would’ve made it without her.

Many, many, many more great memories of basketball.  The time when I came into the locker room and Kim was wearing my bra…and I got mad at her.  Everyone else thought it was hilarious, but I didn’t.  Of course, Kim wasn’t the kind of person you can stay mad at for very long and we all had a good chuckle over how many pairs of socks it took to fill that bra up.

Our sophomore year and our struggle to make it to the National Junior College basketball tournament.  There was this awesome picture of Kim in the Mason City Globe Gazette paper and she’s running on the court with her arms in the air, we had just won our final game and cemented our place in the national tournament; The fun that we all had staying in the hotel room in Maryland and the one in Washington DC; All of us doing the ‘Ethiopian shoulder dance’ in the middle of the court. The entire tournament experience was one that I will never ever forget.  What a fantastic trip

This was our team picture that was in the Globe Gazette when we knew we were going to Nationals.

I also remember Kim and I looking across a stage at one another as we sat on the Waldorf Homecoming court silently making fun of each other.  I don’t think we believed that we were actually sitting in front of the entire school in basically a prom dress….

In February of 1997 I rode-tripped to CO to visit my sister and I stopped in Council Bluffs to visit Kim on my way.  Oh we had fun!  I remember going out that night and seeing some random Waldorf people that we totally hadn’t seen in years.  Another good memory.

My friend Kim passed away on Friday, November 17^th  2006.  In March of 2000 she had been diagnosed with a blood disorder called Thrombotic Thombocytopenia Purpura (TTP).  She was a dear person with a great heart.  I’m sorry to say that we didn’t keep in touch as we should have however I kept tabs on her through my sister and her friends.  She touched my life and I’m sure that I’m a better person for having known her.  I still can’t believe that she is gone.

So you wanna start a Tall Club, eh?

You’re tall.  You feel like you hang out with a lot of tall people.  You think it would be fun to start a tall club.  So you talk to your other tall friends and everyone seems to think it would be fun and a great idea.  Now what?  Well, that’s what I’m here for!  I’ve got the inside info on how you can start your very own tall club and also how you too can become affiliated with Tall Clubs International.

The basic requirements:

1. Men must be a minimum of 6’2″ and women must be a minimum of 5’10”.
2. All members must be at least 21 years of age.
3. Start-up clubs should be active for 6 months prior to application for membership
4. Minimum membership prior to application for membership is 15 members.
5. TCI annual dues are $3 per member, minimum of $45, due in January of each year.

The basic steps

1. Name your club and elect officers
2. Publicize your club (Facebook, Twitter, Meet-Up, etc)
3. Begin having regular meetings and social events to attract more members
4. Write your bylaws (samples available)
5. Open a bank account and start collecting dues to fund events
6. Once you have 15 members it’s time to apply for members ship!  (you must have authorization by a majority vote of your members directing the club president to seek membership through TCI)
7. Contact TCI’s Vice President of Membership (tci-membership@tall.org) at least 60 days prior to the annual convention (usually the last weekend in June) to submit your application for membership.  You will need:

• Letter of Application from your Club President
• Letter of Sponsorship from another TCI club in good standing (find one that’s close in proximity to you or perhaps make friends with someone in a club OR contact me and I’ll direct you to someone close to you)
• Send a check for 1/2 of the annual dues (minimum $22.50 for 15 members)
• List of founding members (Include: names, officially measured height barefoot, zip code, and email address)

If all is in order, your new club will be nominated for membership at the annual Delegates meeting during Convention.

Some of my tall club members at Convention in Las Vegas in 2009 when I won Miss Tall International.

Why should I become affiliated with Tall Clubs International (TCI)?

• Charity–TCI is affiliated with several charities so your funds go to some great charities such as Marfan Syndrome and Habitat for Humanity.
• Parents–TCI is a little like your parent.  You have your local club and then TCI above your local club.  It’s a great dynamic.
• Parties–do you like to party?  Yeah, me too.  And so do many of the TCI members.
• Tall People–do you like to party with tall people?  Yeah, me too…..see where I’m going with this?
• Tall Stores–what better place to swap stories about tall stores or even better swap clothes.  Or how about this, many tall stores offer discounts to members of TCI!!!
• Miss Tall International–Are you single, female, and always wanted to wear a crown and a sash?  Perhaps you should consider running for Miss Tall International.
• Ummmm…FUN–I don’t think I need to expand on this

Me and my tall friend Jan. This was taken at a Tall Christmas party!

Now, if you’d like to start a tall club please do!  If you would like more information on this please feel free to contact TCI Vice President (currently Genie Williamson) at tci-membership@tall.org.

I can also assist if you would like to contact me at misstallgirlramblings@gmail.com.  I can direct you to clubs near you or directly to TCI for further assistance.

#2

Welcome back, tallness readers! We’ve hit week 4 in the countdown of the Top 5 Coolest Things I Learned from Reading The Tall Book by Arianne Cohen. For the few here who might not have read my blog before, I’ve been doing this count down as opposed a formal review because I figure enough people out there will be doing reviews. And as opposed to just one post and we’re done, I decided to stretch it out to keep everyone interested in checking the book out because I love it and it makes me happy. Ok, well, let’s get on with it, shall we?

#2: Being tall has less to do with genetics than you think

My whole life I was told about “The Tall Gene” as if there was one magic gene in the many ga-jillions in my body (ga-jillions is a number right? shut up, I’m not great with math) that magically made me tall. And that was due in part to both of my parents being tall, my Dad being 6’3″ and my Mom 6’0″.

The problem is that it takes a whole bunch of gene’s, not just one to make up your height. Just having one tall parent and one short parents does not mean that somehow their kids will all be average height. My family is a great example, as my Dad’s brother is also tall, while their sisters being pretty short with one of them being 5’2″, my grandmother’s height. That means that it’s really just a crap shoot as to what height you’ll end up with, atleast with your genetic background. There may be more tall genes in your family, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be tall.

And height just cause your short doesn’t mean you’re kids will be short. Apparently, environment has more to do with height than anything else. The reason a lot of people in certain countries are short is purely because of their diet. Asians aren’t short because of genetics, it’s because of their diet. It’s kind of a brain training for your pituitary, needs to say Arianne goes into more detail in her book. Let’s just say that I’m in the market for a 3 or 4th generation Asian-American woman. 🙂

PS: As we track our tall Asian hotties, I hope people didn’t miss Moon Bloodgood. She’s 5’10” tall of Korean, Irish and Dutch decent. She was recently in Terminator: Salvation and a 3 episode stint on Burn Notice. I’m gonna have to start a gallery of these ladies at some point…