Andy
A post on Audrey’s blog about playing soccer reminded me of a story from when I was young.
I was at Boy Scout camp and I was in High School, I think. Maybe 9th grade. One guy in our troup, Andy, was a lot bigger than the rest of us. He was easily 6′ 1″, maybe taller. I had known him since elementary school, I think. Anyway, there’s alot of free time during the day after all the classes/activities are done, and he came over to the rest of us and said we had been invited up to play soccer with some of the camp folks, mostly older boyscouts and staff.
So we all headed up to the field. There was alot of discussion about how to split up the teams. I noticed that the guys on the other team looked alot older than us, and alot…well…meaner. One guy had these torn up gloves with no fingers. And fangs.
So we chased the ball around a while and I noticed that there was alot of pushing and shoving and our guys were on the ground alot. I tried to get the ball from one guy and ended with a knee in the groin (I was tough, walked it off very proudly, but oof did it hurt). Finally, the other team leader called Andy over and told him he didn’t want the “little kids”, and that he had invited Andy “because he was bigger”.
We all figured it was time to leave and let Andy play with the big guys. Andy just shook his head and walked away with us. I was real proud of him for not just dumping us like that, even though I knew he wanted to play.
Made me almost want to forgive him for beating me out of 1st place in the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts. Almost. :)
January 30th, 2006 12:19
Was reading the NY Times this morning and there is an interesting article about Brussels chocolatiers. Very interesting
January 30th, 2006 20:09
Instant respect for kids (or adults) who don’t bow to peer pressure. I love it!
January 30th, 2006 20:19
So I know this wasn’t the main point of your post…but um, in regards to getting hit in the groin while playing soccer…GOOD FOR YOU FOR WALKING IT OFF. the goalie on the other team was just LYING there recovering for minutes with the same injury (with a running clock b/c that’s the rule in our league) and his team was ahead and i was SOOO annoyed at him. I was telling the ref he should sub his butt OFF the field and that he could NOT just lie there in a ball. So um, good for you for toughing it out. i know, i know, i have no compassion…
January 30th, 2006 23:32
Got to love people for standing up for what is right. I bet you wonder where Andy is now sometimes. Do you know?
January 31st, 2006 10:46
Go Andy! I like that story.
January 31st, 2006 12:51
Funny you mention the pinewood derby race - my son’s den/pack?? will have their race coming up in the next couple of weeks. I was never a scout so I’m just helping him along with something he seems to enjoy. He’s so competitive and wants to build the Ferrari of pinewood derby cars!
January 31st, 2006 16:10
Andy’s a hero. I love that story :-)
January 31st, 2006 18:56
I always wondered why boys would ball up and just lay there. Very impressive that you could walk it off. It seems that sometimes those poor boys couldn’t even breathe. I decided I was happy to be a girl when I was like ten just because this display of weakness! Then I got my period!
January 31st, 2006 20:15
Having had two sons, I’ve watched the guy mentality…and wondered about it. Yeah, it’s much harder to be a boy, I think. But I’m a girl…so…who knows.
January 31st, 2006 23:23
Andy sounds like a good guy. And those other dudes were complete jerks.
February 1st, 2006 00:19
I saw a movie very similar to that you know, :) Yep that is just to cool to have a friend like that.
Heather
February 1st, 2006 16:52
So let me get this straight….um…you were in highschool and you were a BOY SCOUT? Man the ladies musta looooooved you!
;)
February 2nd, 2006 20:35
LOL - Pam beat me to it - I was going to comment about that - you’ll have to enlighten us about your dating days :)