Robert Pershing Wadlow (1918–1940) He looked like a stilt-walker, or a suited sunflower, parading his head along the tidy streets of Alton. His aerial ears stopped cars. Illinois’s tallest boy—his height: eight feet and eleven inches. He occupied a sweeter air, above the strangers’ cologne and second-lung smoke, the cheesy pong of spongy sandwiches. Wherever he’d go, an impromptu camp would form: upturned faces lengthening with surprise. The suck and pop of gasps as he waded through the paddling pool of people. Handshakes were ribbon-cutting protocol; his foot-long hands englobed other folks’. They were useless with…
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