Back in the early 50's my uncle had a friend whose nickname was "Flag." So I asked my uncle how Flag got that strange nickname. Flag was about 6 feet, nine inches tall and very skinny. When he was a teenager back in the 30's, and already well over six feet, his friends started calling him "Flagpole" which was shortened to "Flag."

One day a really tall guy came into my uncle's store. He stayed and talked a while, bought some fishing lures and left. I commented that he was a tall one and was told that he was a sheet rocker (someone who installs dry wall on walls and ceilings in new houses) and being almost seven feet tall, he never used a ladder. His mother was taller than his father. She was 6 feet 3 inches and his father only 6 feet 2. His father was also in construction but he did flooring, probably because he was short.

And then there is the old joke about the seven-footer who applied for a job as a life guard. They asked him if he could swim, and he said, "No, but I can wade a long ways out."

And then there was Curtis, a kid in my high school. He was 6 feet 4 and growing. Basketball? Nope, not for Curtis. He liked football. Not only could he catch a pass that was way over everybody else's head, he could run like the wind. Most of his height was legs.

Someone once asked Abe Lincoln how long he thought a man's legs should be and he said long enough to reach the ground.

And my favorite fractured quote:
"He sat on a boxcar and his feet touched the ground." --Longfellow
Howard