I never understood running, so in high school I played goalie on the field hockey team. Safe, yes? Not when someone swung her stick and cracked my thumb.
Basketball was ok bc in those days the rules kept half the team on one side of the center line (forwards) and the other 3 (guards) on the other. Then the shock of new rules with a “roving” player who could cross that line. Too confusing for me.
I kind of miss the gym suits we had to change into.
Your photos have inspired me to look for the black and white pics from my youth, and even my mother’s (from the 1930s). She played basketball with a team of 5 that followed the “boys rules” bc there weren’t enough girls to play.
Ouch, Mermaid! That thumb whack must've been awful, not to mention the basketball rule change. The nerve of them! One of my brothers played basketball which gave me plenty of exposure to the game. I could barely keep up, even off the court.
I very nearly added a bit about gym suits to this story but opted against it. Suffice to say, except for the ease of outfit decision-making, I do NOT miss those suits.
I love knowing that you're now inspired to look through old photos. I bet the ones of your mom's basketball team are amazing!
Always glad to have you here, and thanks for the extra love for the pictures. 📸
In the world of sports, I believe there is this tendency to focus on the physical, rather than the cerebral or the emotional.. In other words football is thought about probably before chess or bridge.. All would be considered sports but some more demanding physically...others more demanding, I would argue mentally.. I would also say that in the world of using one's mind and spirit... the gift or "sport" of creative writing is just as spectacular... The great football running back Walter Payton stated,
"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."... Just maybe with your early sports skills you might have spent a lot of time reminding people how good you were ...or might have been.... But I have you known you most of your life and recognized your gifts of words and literary emotions... a special cerebral sport... I'm one of those who will tell you "how great you are..."
You make an excellent point, Barry. There are some who wouldn't dream of classifying chess or bridge as a sport (game being different, I suppose), and who ever heard of paying millions to any of the cerebrally gifted players?!
Thanks for seeing my strengths, then and now, Barry. ☺️
This was hilarious. Too many good lines to quote back. You are on a roll! Thanks for the laugh. I remember my neighbor asking me about my favorite sports. When I answered hiking, swimming and dancing, she said, “You don’t like group activities much, do you?” We still laugh about it.
I not only have no affinity for sports and couldn't care less about any kind of sportsball — I am also way less athletic than you. I would never have attempted most of the things you've done! Hiking and salsa dancing are about all I can handle.
If you knew my athletic history (capabilities) you'd feel like an Olympic medal winner. At least it ran in my family, so I didn't have to feel like the black sheep. You made me chuckle all the way through on this rainy day. I give you an A+ for at least trying everything!
Childhood contains so many embarrassments. Sigh. Good on you for finding those little memorable moments. (And you really did have legs that went on forever! 😃)
Ha! Fortunately, I had good experiences enough to outweigh the embarrassing ones. Here's one: I made the cheerleading squad the next season...after I grew into my legs and lungs a bit, and right before I transferred to a much larger public high school. I got it out of my system and had no desire to try it again. Phew!
How perfectly you described my childhood. The small amount of time our PE class spent on gymnastics was my favorite time
And then we spent most of the year on group sports. I was always the last one or two picked for teams. And no wonder. I always froze when the ball came to me and then all eyes hatefully stared at me as the reason our side lost. Sports did nothing for my low self esteem. I don't think it began to improve until I was in my 40's. Then slowly I managed to think I was okay. I don't look back wishing it had been different.
Oof, Barbara! The things we are required to endure, right? Just now, though, I'm thinking about those who excelled in sports but struggled in other classes. I'm sure that was its own kind of humiliating for them. Then again, English class didn't draw fans to the bleachers nor cheerleaders to the sidelines, so I'd say they still came out ahead! 😅
So great to see you here. Thanks for laughing along with me.
Wonderfully created! You are a sports winner in writing about sports. More than that I'm still smiling. I love your descriptions. Each word has weight.
As a female who could only get a varsity sports letter one way in high school, I became a cheerleader.
At university, until Title 9, or whatever, a woman couldn't be varsity. Therefore, I appealed, and at age 69, got my Big Ten Varsity Letter. The oldest woman to be awarded one? I wonder.
It took the intervention of the University President....
Gah, Jill, what an uplifting comment! Thank you. Your story about going for your Varsity Letter at 69 is impressive, inspiring, and retroactively INFURIATING! Have you written about that already? I'd love to read that story someday. Well done, you!
I will be writing about it!! I have thought about writing it but have never actually gotten it out. I did do a little talk about it to the current gymnasts at the university!
Such a fun read, Elizabeth, full of word-play. I'm sure there is a trophy or silver cup out there somewhere for having tried all of these sports and been graceful in the moving on of it all. Notably missing.... basketball, golf, soccer, tag football, ping pong, tennis, and ultimate frisbee. Still some things out there you could try. Lol. No matter the personal affinity for sports, did you at least like Ted Lasso?
Points for effort, right? 😂 We can knock tennis off the list. Volleyball, too, though I didn't include that one. And you forgot the new/old fad: Pickleball (shudder).
Amy, I have not watched a single episode of Ted Lasso. Can we still be friends? Most of the people I have the most respect for have raved about it, but lacking any of the paid platform options for watching it, I've totally missed out. I see it's available on AppleTV and that I can start a free 7-day trial, but that feels like a slippery slope. Which reminds me that I also didn't include skiing! I've done my share of that, too!
Crikey! We almost had snap there, except I didn’t do gymnastics, cheerleading (is that a sport?) or softball. I ran for fitness but not for competition.
I’m not into watching sports on TV except for the Olympics (summer and winter, the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia). I can’t abide Aussie Rules football, quite like soccer because the pup plays brilliantly, and am quite happy to stand off-field and watch a game of evening cricket .
As you articulate so well, it’s the competition thing I hate. In a way, the teams thing as well, as the responsibility of not letting the team down is very heavy. (It’s what dragged me onto the stage last year after my darling Terrier passed away. I didn’t want to be there - big black period! But there were others in the corps, a team, damn it!)
But I’ve cheered my own kids on at squash, tennis and hockey and yelled myself hoarse at their rowing regattas. And most recently, cheered my 6 year old grandson at his cross-country where he just jogged along keeping one of his friends (a diabetic who didn’t want to run at all) company. Said sproglet is lanky and probably could have streamed in if he’d wanted but he obviously felt in his heart that his friend was more important. I could have awarded him a gold medal just for that!
We connect in so many ways, Prue, that I'm willing to ignore all your exceptions. 🤣
In truth, I do and have enjoyed certain sports more than I let on here. And when one of my kids was going great guns at tumbling, and another kid was active as a rower, I was all in for the parental cheering section.
The story of your grandson keeping his friend company in the cross country race is 100% medal-worthy. In my opinion, he's got his priorities straight, and I suspect that comes from the deeper roots of his family. 🥇
Right out of the gate: 5 gold stars for “trebuchet” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I listened to this yesterday and your deadpan delivery is everything. But I didn’t see the bonus “Jungle Boogie” with fish tank shot until now. Sooooo goooood.
I relate to this hard. Moving to Chicago and not giving a shit about sports makes me an outlier…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve answered “Cubs or Sox?” with “No thanks!” and received a look like I ran over their dog in the driveway. I was once a runner, I do miss the stress release and the fact that you can do it anywhere. But I am not a lithe creature and eventually all of my structural integrity began to cry out for me to stop. And I ran out of physical therapy creds on my insurance. I took the hint.
I also judge folks on their ability to change the subject. Let’s start our own team. I am cool with a cute uniform 🥋♥️🙌🏼
Ha! One of my kids tells me that my essays always make her cry. This time, she said she laughed herself to the point of tears at the trebuchet bit. People probably still talk about my throwing technique!
I hear you loud and clear on the screaming structural integrity part. That absolutely contributed to the end of my running days. I now have a silicone strap on a water bottle imprinted with "Running Sucks!"
Team 'Sports, Go Sports!" here we come (how I loved that video!). Thanks for adding to the fun, Eileen. Counting down the days with you. 🩷
This was so funny and so good. I don't get it either. The impassioned connection to (professional) teams as if people are actually on them. And I hated PE in school. Not that I was super driven in school (I wasn't) but I did think it really unfair that it was part of our GPA. Like, the valedictorian needs to ALSO be very coordinated as well as brilliant? How will that matter to their future of curing cancer? Subscribing for more of this...
Thank you, Wendy. You get it! And I’m delighted to have you here. While I didn’t hate PE, it is odd that it is included in the GPA. That said, many an athlete probably had the same thought about English or Mathematics! 🤪
It seems I have quite a collection of 'home girls' among my readers. So delighted to know you're among them, Lindsay. I think my right index finger might still be a little pinker than the others from the swimming years.
I'm still smiling. This one had me giggling all the way through. As I totally relate.
Oh, see?! I would have pegged as a Class A athlete, Nancy. 😅 Shows you what I know! I'm smiling thinking of you giggling. Thanks for that.
I never understood running, so in high school I played goalie on the field hockey team. Safe, yes? Not when someone swung her stick and cracked my thumb.
Basketball was ok bc in those days the rules kept half the team on one side of the center line (forwards) and the other 3 (guards) on the other. Then the shock of new rules with a “roving” player who could cross that line. Too confusing for me.
I kind of miss the gym suits we had to change into.
Your photos have inspired me to look for the black and white pics from my youth, and even my mother’s (from the 1930s). She played basketball with a team of 5 that followed the “boys rules” bc there weren’t enough girls to play.
As always, thanks for your photos.
Ouch, Mermaid! That thumb whack must've been awful, not to mention the basketball rule change. The nerve of them! One of my brothers played basketball which gave me plenty of exposure to the game. I could barely keep up, even off the court.
I very nearly added a bit about gym suits to this story but opted against it. Suffice to say, except for the ease of outfit decision-making, I do NOT miss those suits.
I love knowing that you're now inspired to look through old photos. I bet the ones of your mom's basketball team are amazing!
Always glad to have you here, and thanks for the extra love for the pictures. 📸
In the world of sports, I believe there is this tendency to focus on the physical, rather than the cerebral or the emotional.. In other words football is thought about probably before chess or bridge.. All would be considered sports but some more demanding physically...others more demanding, I would argue mentally.. I would also say that in the world of using one's mind and spirit... the gift or "sport" of creative writing is just as spectacular... The great football running back Walter Payton stated,
"When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you."... Just maybe with your early sports skills you might have spent a lot of time reminding people how good you were ...or might have been.... But I have you known you most of your life and recognized your gifts of words and literary emotions... a special cerebral sport... I'm one of those who will tell you "how great you are..."
You make an excellent point, Barry. There are some who wouldn't dream of classifying chess or bridge as a sport (game being different, I suppose), and who ever heard of paying millions to any of the cerebrally gifted players?!
Thanks for seeing my strengths, then and now, Barry. ☺️
Hilarious! I too had so many close calls with athletic fame! 😉
Phew! One fly-ball away from stardom! Thanks for stopping in, Janet, and for sharing in the good fun.
This was hilarious. Too many good lines to quote back. You are on a roll! Thanks for the laugh. I remember my neighbor asking me about my favorite sports. When I answered hiking, swimming and dancing, she said, “You don’t like group activities much, do you?” We still laugh about it.
Hahaha! Nailed it, didn't she!? Good to know who my compatriots are in the solo sports. Thanks, Teresa.
I not only have no affinity for sports and couldn't care less about any kind of sportsball — I am also way less athletic than you. I would never have attempted most of the things you've done! Hiking and salsa dancing are about all I can handle.
If you knew my athletic history (capabilities) you'd feel like an Olympic medal winner. At least it ran in my family, so I didn't have to feel like the black sheep. You made me chuckle all the way through on this rainy day. I give you an A+ for at least trying everything!
Oh, well how about that? I get to stand on a proverbial podium after all! Thanks for the boost, Marcia. 🥇
I'd say my mother was less of an athlete than I, but she made up for it by being a super fan. Clearly, I didn't inherit that gene.
Thanks for spending some time here today. Loved your comment!
I really enjoy your writing, Elizabeth. And I am with you; never enjoyed team sports. I preferred to be on my bicycle or hiking. 😊
That makes me smile, Don, thank you. I'll picture you out there doing your own thing!
Childhood contains so many embarrassments. Sigh. Good on you for finding those little memorable moments. (And you really did have legs that went on forever! 😃)
Ha! Fortunately, I had good experiences enough to outweigh the embarrassing ones. Here's one: I made the cheerleading squad the next season...after I grew into my legs and lungs a bit, and right before I transferred to a much larger public high school. I got it out of my system and had no desire to try it again. Phew!
How perfectly you described my childhood. The small amount of time our PE class spent on gymnastics was my favorite time
And then we spent most of the year on group sports. I was always the last one or two picked for teams. And no wonder. I always froze when the ball came to me and then all eyes hatefully stared at me as the reason our side lost. Sports did nothing for my low self esteem. I don't think it began to improve until I was in my 40's. Then slowly I managed to think I was okay. I don't look back wishing it had been different.
You describe it so well, Elizabeth!💖
Oof, Barbara! The things we are required to endure, right? Just now, though, I'm thinking about those who excelled in sports but struggled in other classes. I'm sure that was its own kind of humiliating for them. Then again, English class didn't draw fans to the bleachers nor cheerleaders to the sidelines, so I'd say they still came out ahead! 😅
So great to see you here. Thanks for laughing along with me.
Wonderfully created! You are a sports winner in writing about sports. More than that I'm still smiling. I love your descriptions. Each word has weight.
As a female who could only get a varsity sports letter one way in high school, I became a cheerleader.
At university, until Title 9, or whatever, a woman couldn't be varsity. Therefore, I appealed, and at age 69, got my Big Ten Varsity Letter. The oldest woman to be awarded one? I wonder.
It took the intervention of the University President....
Gah, Jill, what an uplifting comment! Thank you. Your story about going for your Varsity Letter at 69 is impressive, inspiring, and retroactively INFURIATING! Have you written about that already? I'd love to read that story someday. Well done, you!
I will be writing about it!! I have thought about writing it but have never actually gotten it out. I did do a little talk about it to the current gymnasts at the university!
Good for you!
Such a fun read, Elizabeth, full of word-play. I'm sure there is a trophy or silver cup out there somewhere for having tried all of these sports and been graceful in the moving on of it all. Notably missing.... basketball, golf, soccer, tag football, ping pong, tennis, and ultimate frisbee. Still some things out there you could try. Lol. No matter the personal affinity for sports, did you at least like Ted Lasso?
Points for effort, right? 😂 We can knock tennis off the list. Volleyball, too, though I didn't include that one. And you forgot the new/old fad: Pickleball (shudder).
Amy, I have not watched a single episode of Ted Lasso. Can we still be friends? Most of the people I have the most respect for have raved about it, but lacking any of the paid platform options for watching it, I've totally missed out. I see it's available on AppleTV and that I can start a free 7-day trial, but that feels like a slippery slope. Which reminds me that I also didn't include skiing! I've done my share of that, too!
Crikey! We almost had snap there, except I didn’t do gymnastics, cheerleading (is that a sport?) or softball. I ran for fitness but not for competition.
I’m not into watching sports on TV except for the Olympics (summer and winter, the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia). I can’t abide Aussie Rules football, quite like soccer because the pup plays brilliantly, and am quite happy to stand off-field and watch a game of evening cricket .
As you articulate so well, it’s the competition thing I hate. In a way, the teams thing as well, as the responsibility of not letting the team down is very heavy. (It’s what dragged me onto the stage last year after my darling Terrier passed away. I didn’t want to be there - big black period! But there were others in the corps, a team, damn it!)
But I’ve cheered my own kids on at squash, tennis and hockey and yelled myself hoarse at their rowing regattas. And most recently, cheered my 6 year old grandson at his cross-country where he just jogged along keeping one of his friends (a diabetic who didn’t want to run at all) company. Said sproglet is lanky and probably could have streamed in if he’d wanted but he obviously felt in his heart that his friend was more important. I could have awarded him a gold medal just for that!
We connect in so many ways, Prue, that I'm willing to ignore all your exceptions. 🤣
In truth, I do and have enjoyed certain sports more than I let on here. And when one of my kids was going great guns at tumbling, and another kid was active as a rower, I was all in for the parental cheering section.
The story of your grandson keeping his friend company in the cross country race is 100% medal-worthy. In my opinion, he's got his priorities straight, and I suspect that comes from the deeper roots of his family. 🥇
Right out of the gate: 5 gold stars for “trebuchet” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I listened to this yesterday and your deadpan delivery is everything. But I didn’t see the bonus “Jungle Boogie” with fish tank shot until now. Sooooo goooood.
I relate to this hard. Moving to Chicago and not giving a shit about sports makes me an outlier…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve answered “Cubs or Sox?” with “No thanks!” and received a look like I ran over their dog in the driveway. I was once a runner, I do miss the stress release and the fact that you can do it anywhere. But I am not a lithe creature and eventually all of my structural integrity began to cry out for me to stop. And I ran out of physical therapy creds on my insurance. I took the hint.
I also judge folks on their ability to change the subject. Let’s start our own team. I am cool with a cute uniform 🥋♥️🙌🏼
Ha! One of my kids tells me that my essays always make her cry. This time, she said she laughed herself to the point of tears at the trebuchet bit. People probably still talk about my throwing technique!
I hear you loud and clear on the screaming structural integrity part. That absolutely contributed to the end of my running days. I now have a silicone strap on a water bottle imprinted with "Running Sucks!"
Team 'Sports, Go Sports!" here we come (how I loved that video!). Thanks for adding to the fun, Eileen. Counting down the days with you. 🩷
This was so funny and so good. I don't get it either. The impassioned connection to (professional) teams as if people are actually on them. And I hated PE in school. Not that I was super driven in school (I wasn't) but I did think it really unfair that it was part of our GPA. Like, the valedictorian needs to ALSO be very coordinated as well as brilliant? How will that matter to their future of curing cancer? Subscribing for more of this...
Thank you, Wendy. You get it! And I’m delighted to have you here. While I didn’t hate PE, it is odd that it is included in the GPA. That said, many an athlete probably had the same thought about English or Mathematics! 🤪
True, but their gpa didn't hold them back from sports-related scholarships! Academic scholarships, however...
What a great read Elizabeth. I’m now drifting back to my own mediocre sporting efforts and eating jello powder with a finger…. 😅
It seems I have quite a collection of 'home girls' among my readers. So delighted to know you're among them, Lindsay. I think my right index finger might still be a little pinker than the others from the swimming years.
Great to see you here. Thanks for stopping by!