St. Pete Community: Meet Willie
If you’ve been coming to our store for a while, you might know Willie. If you’ve joined us at any of our Monday/Thursday Group Runs over the last several years, you probably know Willie and have made friends with him already.
For those who don’t know Willie, allow us to introduce you to this local runner, retired teacher, and one of the friendliest guys you could meet. Come out to one of our 6:30 PM Group Runs on Monday and Thursday at our store, and you’ll likely meet Willie. He does a wonderful job of making people feel welcome when they join our friendly running and walking group.
In Willie’s Own Words
When Willie shared this story on his social media, we asked his permission to share the story on our blog. Willie graciously granted us permission. The following story is in Willie’s own words, and we hope you find great inspiration from it just like we did.
“I had a very odd and rare event happen to me last night. It began when Cindy sent to get some coconut almond milk at Publix for a fast that she is on. After picking up the milk I headed up front to the checkout registers . The first checkout only had two customers with only a few items each, so I added myself to the queue and nodded to the cashier. He smiled and nodded back. He then looked at me repeatedly in distracted recognition while checking the items of lady ahead of me.
“Many of you know I was a teacher here in St. Pete for 24 years and so I often will run into a former student around town.
I looked quickly at his name tag but it didn’t ring any bells for me. Finally as the lady ahead of me was paying he asked if I was a teacher! I told him ‘Yes’ and he said that I had been his second grade teacher!! At that point the lady paying looks at me and says in surprised recognition, ‘Mr. Roth!’ She had been in my very first 4th grade class back in 1990. She told me her name and then said, “And that’s my mom in the next checkout lane!” Her mom waved at me. She had taught with me at the same school when I taught her daughter… About this time I was thinking what are the odds of running into two former students, a parent of one, who was also happened to be a former colleague! As a matter of fact the daughter also began to work at the school after she graduated from college, so she was also a former colleague! The young man who began ringing my milk up, tried to speak, but was having trouble getting it out as he seemed to be getting emotional and tearing up, ‘You were my favorite teacher and I have told so many stories about you.’
‘I hope they were good ones,’ I said and laughed.
Then from behind me came ‘Mr. Roth? I think that was my teacher.’ As I turned to look… there, behind me in line at the same check out, was another former student speaking to her mom, who she was down visiting for the holidays from out of state!!!
“At this point I was starting to look around to see how many more former students I would run into… but that was it. I talked with everyone a bit more and then we all went our own paths out into the world once again. For me it was one of the most wonderfully strange things to occur in my life and one that I just had to share. What many random things had to occur in each of our lives to lead us all to the same place, at the same time! Thank you, Cindy, for your random influence of sending me to the store for some coconut almond milk!”
Willie, thank you for sharing this amazing story. The impact you had on your former students speaks volumes about your incredible character. We are so happy to have you as part of our local running community.
Do you have a story to share with us about the local running community or your journey as a runner? You can email Blogger Bria bria@stpeterunningcompany.com. Are you looking for great running shoes and awesome service? Be sure to call or come into the store where our shoe and running experts are ready to provide the high-quality customer service you expect from a Top 50 Running Store in America.
