He found more enjoyment in outdoor activities than in reading; sports and scouting were his main interests. As Gallo once remembered, "I did not read anything that was not required of me in school. . . . I almost never sat down to read for what we call 'pleasure.' Reading was too boring for me." Gallo became an Eagle Scout and was named Outstanding Scout in his council while in high school. He also played football and ran track. "For parents and teachers who agonize over their inability to get their otherwise bright and successful teenagers to read, I provide hope," Gallo quipped. In spite of terrible spelling skills and a limited vocabulary in high school, he went on to college and it was there he finally discovered the joys of reading.
Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, a tedious exercise in high school, suddenly came to life for him in college. "I fell in love with Hemingway's writing and his macho image. I was in that skiff with Santiago; I struggled beside him to land that magnificent fish; I raged at the sharks that attacked the marlin lashed to the boat; and I fell into bed exhausted with the old man in the end, knowing that even though we may have been beaten, we would never be defeated.
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