The Sky’s the Limit for Birthday Boy

Norm Johnson did not spend his birthday this year jumping out of an airplane.

That’s what he did in 1998, parachuting at 10,000 feet over the California desert near the town of Hemet.

He fell to earth at approximately 120 mph, landing safely in his first attempt at skydiving.

“I said I was going to do it, I did it,” he said afterward, “and I’m never going to do it again.”

After his adventure, Norm got on another plane and flew to New York to be a guest on Rosie O’Donnell’s TV show. Her audience sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

He had a high old time.

Topping that wouldn’t be easy, but this May, when his birthday rolled around again, Norm was game.

A suggestion was made, and he said OK. He also agreed to hold off this time until Father’s Day weekend, as an example to younger people never to underestimate the old man.

Officials of the California International Speedway consented to let Norm race a stock car for 10 laps, at speeds upward of 160 mph.

Norm Johnson is 93.

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A few days ago, Wayne Allyn Root, 37, a self-help author and motivational speaker from Malibu, was thinking back to last year’s birthday stunt, which some had jokingly referred to as “Throw Grandpa From the Plane.”

Norm Johnson is his grandfather--or at least a surrogate, actually being the grandfather of Wayne’s wife.

Root likes to call himself “this crazy New York Jew who married into this family of Oklahoma born-again Christians.”

He is a self-made millionaire whose own father and grandfather were butchers. Root was still living with his parents at 27, after years of business failures and job rejections.

Eventually he landed a position on television with the Financial News Network. He’s since worked as a sports commentator on the USA cable channel, appears occasionally on ABC’s “Politically Incorrect” and goes around the country giving speeches on how to get the most out of life.

“You gotta take risks,” he emphasizes.

Little did he know what form this would take in his own family.

A self-described workout nut, Root took an immediate shine to his new grandfather, who is the oldest member of the 2,800-strong Pasadena Athletic Club.

He could barely keep up with Norm, a retired printing press operator who would get out of bed daily by 6--he lives right there in an apartment at the Athletic Club--and do a two-hour workout, usually using Nautilus equipment and rowing machines.

One day in late 1997, Norm said in passing, “I’m about to have my 92nd birthday. What can we do to celebrate?”

Root remembered seeing on CNN a story about an elderly man who parachuted from a plane. He asked Norm, how about that?

“I really did believe he was going to laugh at me.”

Instead, Norm said that if Root could arrange it, he’d be there.

A short while later, Root happened to be on NBC’s “Today” show, talking about his work, when the host, Jack Ford, brought up New Year’s resolutions. Root blurted out that his nonagenarian grandfather had just resolved to go skydiving.

Having obligated the man publicly, Root thought, “if he backs out, I’m going to look like the biggest idiot who ever lived.”

Norm had no such plan.

The jump went off without a hitch on May 26, 1998. Root spent the entire previous night throwing up. His grandfather was so enthusiastic, he felt, well, 80 again.

“It was very exciting,” Norm remembers. “And so was going to New York to visit Rosie.”

So what do you do for an encore?

“I guess we race cars,” Norm says.

He eagerly accepted a new challenge to get behind a wheel Saturday at the speedway in Fontana and burn some rubber. No slow lane life for him.

Norm is asked what’s the fastest he’s ever gone in a car.

“Oh, about 95,” he says. “I like to go fast.”

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Some fathers and grandfathers do nothing more daring on this particular holiday than drink orange juice instead of prune.

Norm Johnson says his only regret is that a doctor recently told him to reduce his daily workouts to every other day.

“He told me, ‘Norm, you’re beating your body to death. You’re not 16 anymore.’ ”

Acting young is the only way he knows to stave off feeling old.

His grandson vows that this is it--no more stunts after this. As enjoyable as it’s been, Root says, “after all, the man’s going to be 94 next year. He can’t keep this up indefinitely.”

Just in case, though, he is looking into whitewater rafting.

How’s that sound, Norm?

“You know what I wanted to do?” Norm replies. “I want to jump over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But they won’t let anybody do that anymore.”

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Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles CA 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com