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bat, and the mitt, and everything that goes with it’).
    James Newell Osterberg Senior, the dominating influence in the life of the son who carried his name, was born on 28 March 1921; he was of Irish and English descent, but spent his youth in a Michigan orphanage, lonely and unwanted until two spinster Jewish sisters named Esther and Ida Osterberg walked in and decided that 14-year-old James was the child who most needed a home. They nurtured and loved him, and paid for his education, before passing away in quick succession: one in mourning for their lovely house, bulldozed to make way for a highway, and the second for her adored sister. James appreciated the break he’d been given late in life and worked hard at school. A keen baseball player, he later played in the minor leagues and tried out for the Brooklyn Dodgers, although he never obtained the contract card that designated professional athlete status. Like many of his generation, James Osterberg’s education was interrupted by the war, but his obvious college potential meant he was trained as a radio operator in the Army Air Force (in later years he would still remember his missions over Germany and warn his son off the place). After the war James Senior toyed with studying dentistry and osteopathy, before training as a teacher of English and moving to Ypsilanti to take a job at the high school on Packard Road, a four-minute drive from Coachville.
    James Osterberg Senior was regarded by most of those who knew him as a reserved, even severe teacher, who graded his students strictly. As well as teaching English, he assisted in sports. As a new teacher, he was more likely to teach the less academic pupils, in which case much of the emphasis in the English lessons was on public speaking. Many of his ex-pupils remember being intimidated by him during their school days, although as adults they’ve come to admire his tenacity and commitment; one pupil, Mary Booth, describes him as her most ‘feared - and favourite’ teacher. Around 1958 Osterberg landed a better-paid job at Fordson High, in the Dearborn district, an area on the outskirts of Detroit dominated by a huge Ford plant. The bigger paycheck meant the family could move from their Spirit trailer to a much bigger New Moon, all futuristic and Jetsony. At Fordson, Osterberg was respected as a committed, dedicated and fair teacher, who would occasionally unleash a quick, dry humour. ‘Mr O’ was an idealist; sometimes this made life difficult, notably when he unsuccessfully attempted to found a teachers’ union. According to Jim Junior, only one friend backed him up, and the project was abandoned.
    Not all of Mr Osterberg’s charges remember his lessons, but those who do retain huge respect for his dedication and perseverance. Patricia Carson Celusta was inspired to become a high school teacher by his example, and credits him with transforming her from a shy girl into a confident public speaker. ‘He made you think beyond yourself,’ she recalls fondly, remembering that this inspirational figure helped impart ‘truths that have sustained us all’. Now retired after her own long career as an English and speech teacher, Patricia Celusta hails James Osterberg as ‘the very definition of a teacher’, and still treasures a battered old copy of the English textbook from which he taught. Mr O inculcated confidence and the power of the spoken word into his successful pupils, as well as encouraging their understanding of wider cultural and literary issues. Many other ex-pupils back up Patricia’s description of him as committed, capable and fair. So does Osterberg Junior. But this was the 1950s, and Jim Senior was a military-minded man, and that intellectual rigour required a backbone of discipline, which meant on several occasions he would resort to using the belt or the hickory stick on his son.
    While Jim Junior would disappoint his disciplinarian father countless times over the following years, and often