Gym Class II

Okay, so gym class, or Phys Ed, whichever one you called it, was not always bad. There was a lighter side to it sometimes.

Take dodge ball for instance. As I said before, this was always fun. I was never one of the best players, but I wasn't the worst either. My crowning moment, almost literally, was to have my head slammed into the wall by a ball thrown by Arnold Hawkins. I'm still not sure which hurt the most, the ball or the wall (bleachers).

Dickie Blankenship comes to mind a couple of times. He could walk the length of the basketball court on his hands. That was amazing. I also believe it was him, but I might be wrong, who was involved in a bet once with Jerry White. Jerry said he could do five pushups to Dickie's every one. Dickie immediately did something like fifty, or some such number, and expected Jerry to do five times that many. Jerry proceded to do five, which in the way he worded his boast that started it all was exactly what he meant to do.

There was also the time Coach Ratledge was going to teach us how to play golf. That lasted only a day or two. We went out in the field next to the school, where the city park is now, and hit a golf ball around. I think Coach even used his own personal set of golf clubs, and I know of at least one of them that got bent.

Or, how about the “no street shoes on the gym floor” rule that was enforced for awhile. We were all too scared to even go near the gym floor. I think I paid five bucks for my gym shoes. They were Keds. My son showed me a pair of Michael Jordan’s the other day at Foot Locker. They were $229.00. I’d rather have the Keds.