We are celebrating Women’s History Month by sharing bits of our history. This week we are talking about our athletic prowess or lack there of. Wickeds answer the following questions:
1. Did you play a sport growing up?
Edith/Maddie: I took ballet lessons for ten years (from an inexpensive-but-fabulous teacher that held classes in public schools after hours and on Saturdays – all costumes sewed by the moms, of course) and swam recreationally in the summers. So…no.
Liz: Not if I could help it.
Jessie: No, I never did.
Barb: I took ballet for years, too, which didn’t leave much time for school sports.
Sherry: Barb, I always wanted to take ballet, but we couldn’t afford it. One summer, I think in fifth grade, my PE teacher convinced me to play on a softball team. She lured me with the promise of going to A&W after games. I lasted two practices. My PE teacher failed to mention it would be hotter than the blazes and we were supposed to catch, hit, and throw the ball.
Julie: They always tried to get me to play basketball or volleyball because I’m so tall, but I wasn’t the sports type.
2. On a team or just for fun?
Edith/Maddie: We played all kinds of games for fun. After I “grew up” (not very far up) I did earn a black belt in karate. That was fun, too! As a grad student I played on a softball team, and we were terrible but had loads of fun. As a mom I played on a mom’s softball team.
Liz: Once I ended up on the basketball team in high school (don’t ask me how). I scored two whole points the entire season and spent most of the time on the bench wishing I had a book.
Jessie: I didn’t do any sports at all.
Barb: I took some lessons. Tennis. (Terrible.) Waterskiing. (Terrible.) Downhill skiing. (Not as terrible.) If I can be on or in the water, (except on skis) that’s as sporty as I want to get.
Sherry: Lots of swim lessons and swimming for fun. A friend and I would bat around a tennis ball, but that was only to try and meet boys.
Julie: I played tennis for fun, but never team sports. Too much pressure.
3. If you could do any sport what would it be?
Edith/Maddie: Soccer. I learned to play when I was an exchange student in Brazil (the year Pele won the World Cup for them!) and played on a loose team near the dorms in college. I love the footwork and teamwork.
Liz: I did always like dodge ball…
Jessie: I am enjoying becoming a runner. I like the elegance of it. You need some shoes and a place to do it, that’s it.
Barb: I’m not sure I want to play soccer, like Edith, but I really admire people who can look down any sort of field and anticipate what the other players are going to do and then execute the right move brilliantly. Perhaps I admire it because it’s so far from my skill set.
Sherry: Dodgeball, Liz? I can’t imagine anything worse! I would be an Olympic ice skater. When I was young my friend and I would watch the ice skaters and “skate” around her basement on the concrete floor with our socks on. The reality of my ice skating is I have wobbly ankles and I’ve always been afraid of falling.
Julie: I always love watching the ski jumpers. My two forays into skiing have been disasters, so it would never happen. But can you imagine what that must feel like?
4. Should we form a team?
Edith/Maddie: I wouldn’t be much use on one these days!
Liz: Um. Probably not.
Jessie: We are already a team! Oh, you meant a sports team? What about darts?
Barb: Darts, or there’s always the current craze for axe throwing. That doesn’t sound dangerous at all. I would be happy to have a few drinks with you gals at the local bowling lane. Next retreat?
Sherry: Ha, Jessie — love that. I’m not sure I should be throwing sharp objects. But bowling I can get behind — I have my own shoes and ball. Oh, so I was on a team once upon a time and we took first place!
Julie: Sherry, you have your own bowling ball? I think we need Wicked bowling shirts. I’m in.
Readers: Answer the questions!
When I was little, very young… 3? I started ballet in Lynn, MA and still have strong visuals of the barr! My first real sport was basketball. I was a guard. Then I took up field hockey in junior high, and skiing in high school. I was terrible at everything but loved it all!
The sticks swinging around in field hockey terrified me. We had to play in high school during PE. And skiing for me–shudder!
Yes, I understand. I was a little wild back then.
I played all sorts of sports growing up.
Mostly I played for fun, but I did play basketball in a league.
I would still rather do basketball than any other sport.
But I would not want to form or play on a team anymore. I wouldn’t be up to it physically.
I did spend 25 years coaching youth league basketball though.
That’s so great that you coached!!!!
I played in the league for 3 seasons and I was the first former player that became a coach. Did okay. I coached boys exclusively for the first 20 years, but the last five years I coached a girls team as well. Had fun at times, it was irritating at other times. But that is to be expected.
And we had some success which is always fun. The boys won 8 titles and the girls won 3.
I played basketball in high school and a couple of times I got so aggressive they had to take me out of the game. I’m not an aggressive person at all but for some reason basketball brought it out in me!
And bowling rules! I’m horrible at it but it’s always a good time.
I can’t imagine you being taken out of the game! This is what I love about our blog — you always find out something new about someone!
That’s hilarious, Larissa!
1. I played basketball since we had my brother’s old hoop on the front of our garage. And I rode horses, but I’m not sure that counts. 2. For basketball, I was on an intramural team. Oh, and I was on a bowling team for a while, though that was after I was out of school. 3. If I was young and rich, I’d love to do cross country competitions on horseback. 4. Team? Unless they declare writing a team sport, probably not. 😛
Laughing! I’ve always been afraid of horses so that seems very cool to me!
1. No, unless you count playing stick ball in the street and then run off to the side when the cars came through.
2. Just for fun.
3. I would be a spectator
4. I’ll be your cheering team.
We played lots of games in the street too but it was a quiet, suburban street so we didn’t have to move too often.
Never was good at sports. I was more accident prone. As a child, I had a thick folder of x-rays from medical runs from my time with fun sports. I was the girl that broke her hand on her 13th birthday and then 2 weeks later had a bike accident that injured the other arm and one leg. All my sport playing was just for fun or participating in gym class. I would love to play baseball. Age and health would never allow that. I do good to walk at times. However, probably wouldn’t help if I was younger and healthier since I’ve been told I ran like a sewing machine. My feet and legs go up and down but I don’t seem to go anywhere. 🙂 We are on a team – writers and readers all with the same goal – great books. <3
2clowns at arkansas dot net
Laughing at your — ran like a sewing machine!!! Very funny. We are a team — love it!
I did archery at home, climbing trees and learning to quietly go through the forests around our property. We lived next to my dad’s parent’s who had a family tree company. A lot of land, growing every type of berry, orchard of apples, evergreen trees gardens.grandpa set up archery when I was very small and be shooting target. So I was a n excellent shot. I ran at school and did high jump.
Made it to state but …what do you do with that?
At home dad made an ice skating pond every year which I loved and got good at but school did not appreciate most of my skills🙄 hahaha.
You are all talented 🌷
I loved climbing the apple trees on my grandparent’s farm and taking hikes in the woods. But that’s so cool that you did all those other things.
I never played a sport if I could avoid it. I have nystagmus, so my distance perception is off and that left me out of anything with a ball. If I could have played any sport, however, it would have been basketball. I love the pace of the sport and the strategy involved. Instead of sports, I was into music – piano, voice, etc, and if I tried to play a sport, my mother would likely have yelled “protect your hands!”
Basketball is fun to watch! I love picturing your mom yelling that!
Sports and me never mixed well. I was a tiny, tiny kid, skinny with no muscles. Reading was my sport! though I did love camping and was an active Girl Scout. A small local ski area was built when I was in high school and we had a ski club. I loved it! but had a serious ankle problem and after surgery fixed it, immobilizing the joint, skiing became even harder. (Thought I could ice skate for the first time) By the time my family discovered skis , I had dr orders never to do any sport where I could fall! So I got really good at seeing them off for a day on the slopes while I sat by a fire with cocoa and a book. 🙂
You are still tiny, tiny! When I first met Bob he skied. I think he decided it was too expensive to have me roaming ski resorts while he was on the slopes!
This is a fun post. When I was growing up I did: piano, ballet (than jazz), softball, basketball and volleyball.
It was all for fun. No real teams. Ballet and piano I did do large shows though.
When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we took ballroom dance lessons.
We did the Venetian Waltz at our wedding. And when our son became 13 he joined a boy scouts troup with my husband for civil war re-enacting. When he got married, the wedding was civil war themed. He and his finance were re-enactors. So I learned a lot of the dances of the time. And we danced a lot of them at his wedding. He is now 35 and still envolved in civil war re-enacting.
quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
I love dancing! My husband and I took ballroom dance classes about 15 years ago and we loved it!
Hopefully my answers go through this week!
1. Two soccer and one T ball season. I didn’t like the pressure, especially since I’m not very athletic.
2. Those were city leagues for kids, so supposed to be fun. Actually, I don’t remember there being that much pressure on the teams.
3. Diving. I’ve always wanted to dive. But my lack of flexibility and fear of heights made for a very short diving career.
4. Absolutely! You’d be Wicked good.
Of course, this is leaving out my years of ultimate Frisbee which I started my last semester of college. I still find it funny that mr non athletic started playing that. And then took up running for mud runs 10 years ago. And I was in a bowling league through my last job for a year and a half, which was fun.
I’m glad it made it through too! After your comment last week I dug around on the back side to see if I could find your answers but they weren’t there. Ah, diving — that must be a bit like flying for a few seconds!
My guess is I closed the window on my phone before I hit submit. Thanks for looking, but it was probably operator error.
1. Heh, no. True story: my PE teacher sent a letter home to say I should work on my “ball handling skills” at home. My parents were not impressed or concered.
2. I swam for fun.
3. I really can’t think of anything – I’d rather be the cheering section.
4. If you do, I’ll volunteer to man the refreshment stand.
Laughing! I’m so glad someone thought of refreshments!!!
No organized sports because I have no athletic ability.
The game of choice in my neighborhood was kickball. We played for hours at a time. I also loved to swim and play tennis but only for fun. I enjoyed snow skiing when I got older but was never really good at it.
Ice skating would be my sport of choice. The skaters always look so elegant out on the ice. In Texas, ice skating was not a big sport. I think There was one ice rink (indoor of course) in the whole Dallas/Fort Worth area). My sister and I did ice skate in our socks in the kitchen, though.
Another “sock” skater — yay!
I never liked the really competitive sports, which would annoy the gym teachers who equated playing and competing. Oddly competition brought out a rebellious streak in me. I’d enjoy a mellow game of badminton, batting at the shuttlecock instead of trying to kill it, taking satisfaction in defying the coach. For a while I was on the synchronized swimming team (back then they called it water ballet). But my favorite unit in gym was folk dancing. In fact that’s something I’d love to pick up again, but I don’t live anywhere near lessons.
I always loved badminton too, but like you wanted to see how many times we could go back and forth instead of it slamming down someone’s throat.
1. My sport-library book lift with the goal of carrying heavier stacks of books each visit.
2. Neither.
3. Gymnastics
4. I’m on Team Spectator.
Library book lift — love it!
I attended a country school from K-8th grade where basketball and baseball/ softball were BIG, but not with me. I just wanted to read and every year starting when I was in second grade I got the school certificate for most books read. I mostly remember all those kids asking if I really read that many books. It wasn’t that I didn’t like playing basketball or baseball, I just wasn’t competitive about it I guess, because my friends and I would play when we were all together at someone’s house.
As for a sport I’d like to try, that would be ice skating. The skaters look so graceful on the ice. But if you form a bowling team, count me in! I love to bowl. That was what I took for my PE class in college…. loved it!
I agree with the ice skating — it must feel like flying. Okay — it’s official we need to form a bowling team.
Oh yes badminton. Oh my goodness I totally forgot. We had a net across the backyard most of the
Summer. I am not sure why? We kids only played occasionally, it was for the adults. Hahaa.as I said we had a big but if land &lived next door to dad’s parent’s. Also within 2miles 23 first cousins of his. All police/🔥firefighters, nurses, priests, or worked the family go’s landscaping And tree’s.
they would all end up over at one house or the other. Playing that it horse 🐎shoes. Dad had a real old heavy hand made set made.. Talk stake AND several big 🐎heavy horse shoes. German and French over a few beers and fireflies the 2 games played into the 🌙night. The great Aunts And Uncles on the screened in porch at dusk playing poker or pinochle clinking change when a hand slammed down a bit too hard at a loss 🙂 kids or adults hmm hard to say.. Haha
Oh yes badminton. Oh my goodness I totally forgot. We had a net across the backyard most of the
Summer. I am not sure why? We kids only played occasionally, it was for the adults. Hahaa.as I said we had a big but if land &lived next door to dad’s parent’s. Also within 2miles 23 first cousins of his. All police/🔥firefighters, nurses, priests, or worked the family go’s landscaping And tree’s.
they would all end up over at one house or the other. Playing that it horse 🐎shoes. Dad had a real old heavy hand made set made.. Talk stake AND several big 🐎heavy horse shoes. German and French over a few beers and fireflies the 2 games played into the 🌙night. The great Aunts And Uncles on the screened in porch at dusk playing poker or pinochle clinking change when a hand slammed down a bit too hard at a loss 🙂 kids or adults hmm hard to say.. Haha
I was clumsy (turned out to be a vision issue) but tried everything. Couldn’t skate (weak ankles). Loved tennis and took a Red Ribbon in a tournament in junior high. Discovered archery and ended up teaching it at a summer camp later. Softball, baseball, touch football. Did I say I have four brothers? Was on basketball team in college (even at my height – they were desperate). Swimming became my passion; taught that, ran a waterfront at a summer camp. Skiing was tough until I got the right size skis and learned more properly. Hiking, mountain climbing in my college days. These days, I am paying for it all with joints that remind me daily that I had a lot of fun back then.