4/12/2007

24-Hour "Wall-Brawl"

It is nice living in a "small" city. The kids have to find things to do, since we are lucky enough to not have a MALL here. Anytime I've thought, "Hmmmm...I wish we had a MALL here," I hit STOP, REWIND, DELETE! What the hell am I thinking!!!
Anyway, the kids get pretty creative. Even though we have 3 TVs, Playstations in 2 rooms, DDR, a computer, all that "sit on your ass and veg" crap, the kids in this house usually head out on some sort of adventure with their pals. My daughter has her license, so it's nice, because part of the deal is that she is in charge of driving her little bro' and the Swede into town whenever they need/want. She complains about gas money, until I remind her that the money she spends is money I give her...and then she stops complaining.
Being that there is no school today and tomorrow, a freaky group decided to extend this "Wall-Brawl" thing they've been doing on weekends on the backside of the high school to a 24-hour event! Supposedly, there are adults there (I truly doubt it) monitoring the kids. They have tents set up and food and water. The kids are playing championship wall ball games. They started playing this morning at 10 a.m, I think. I know that my son has been there all day, playing rain or shine. IT'S SO COOL living in Corvallis!
I know I'm a dork because I frequently want to do the things my kids are doing, but I want to play, too! A while back, my buddy, CH, mentioned starting up an adult dodgeball team. I was so into it! I would lie in bed thinking about slamming others with balls, just like I did in high school...and, honestly, during my first 2 years of teaching. See, back in '86, we didn't have PE teachers in the schools, but we did have 4 days of PE each week. I had to plan the games and activities. My class of 5th graders were brilliant, and most were AMAZONS, as their parents were quite affluent and provided them with proper nutrition, unlike the kids I work with today, who are either teeny-tiny, due to inadequate food...or super obese, due to living off soda, juice, hot cheetos, and boogers.
So, my then team-teacher, now my husband, co-teacher and I would put the kids in the gym 2 days per week and set up a HUGE prison ball system! Oh, man, was it elaborate! There were clearly marked boundaries, a terrible prison for the losers who got nailed, and 2 teachers who loved nailing kids. We'd each set ourselves up on opposing teams, to create a feeling of fairness. We would throw the balls so hard that kids would actually writhe in pain on the floor with huge red wounds on their upper-torsos. Only wimps aim for the legs...and it was illegal to go for the heads.
The most amazing thing happened one afternoon as we were pummeling kids. One smartass named "Greg," the kid in my class who was so full of himself that I truly disliked him, challenged my now-hubby by throwing a ball a bit too high...but, he missed. BIG MISTAKE! My hubby was much bigger then (he's probably 40 pounds lighter now). He ran toward the midline, with a red, rubber playground ball clutched in his big right hand. As he hurled the ball, the kid tried to back-peddle and fell. He broke his arm when he went back. He hyper-extended the elbow and snapped the bone!

I want to start up an adult dodgeball or prison ball team! Of course, there are only so many hours in the day, but I've been wanting to work out...I do need to drop 40-50 pounds...and pummeling others is very motivating for me.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

As for dodgeball,
I'm in, I'm in, I'M IN!!!!
Did you let your kids stay our for 24 hours??
I did not, I'm no fun... but I have a feeling he might have been there anyway....hmmm.

J. said...

I'm glad you liked my wall ball rules-- they were refined over many late nights at UCSD, where we never quite made it to dawn but came close.

Sprained a couple fingers too, when we started playing Ga-Ga in the sunken courtyard...

BoggyWoggy said...

Actually, Wasserperson, I just clicked on your site while searching for "Wall Ball Pics." I had already found some rules on school district sites...but, wanted folks to see your picture.