My Favorite Fred Upton Story Is Straight Out Of ‘Field of Dreams’

"Even the best story has a last chapter. This is it for me," And with those words, spoken today on the floor of the United State House of Representatives, our congressman, Fred Upton announced he was calling it a career. First elected in 1986, for almost two generations he is the only Representative some area residents have ever known. He was sworn in two days before I started working here.

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This isn't about politics. I've met our congressman Fred Upton several times. In the radio business, you meet your local politicians from time to time. and Rep. Upton has always struck me as being a decent sort of man.

"He's a Cubs fan."

The only thing I can say negative about the man is he's a Chicago Cubs fan. For the longest time, Upton was the Republican leader of the House committee that oversaw the broadcast business, so I knew he was important to me in that way, too. Either way, Upton is a busy man, and when he wasn't in Washington, he'd be back in the District, and that leads to my favorite Fred Upton story.

The RoofSit Story

This is about five years ago. I was working across the hall here, and the station was doing RoofSit, an annual event raising funds to help children who have been abused, sexually and otherwise. Upton was on the schedule Saturday morning to do a check presentation photo-op at the Roofsit location at Westnedge and Milham. So he gets there and we do the pictures with the ceremonial check and all, and then we're done and he shakes hands with all of us and... starts jogging away (in comfortable shoes, but not sneakers) And he runs through the intersection and jumps in a car, right in the middle of Saturday morning traffic, and disappeared to wherever he was going next. But it was like "where'd he go?" One second he's jogging and then the next he's gone, poof - just like the players exiting the cornfield in "Field of Dreams." We all looked at each other and wondered did we just see this. Is this a congressman or a superhero of some kind; or maybe a ghost?