Today is the thirtieth anniversary of the last day that I every picked up a tennis racket

[MrScorpio]

It's was 1979.

Pretty hot in Detroit that summer. I graduated from high school. One of my best friends, whom I had met in tennis class that final semester, was Jimmy Ashbury. Jimmy was a great kid and an excellent tennis player. I could never figure out why such a great player like Jimmy was in class with the rest of us rubes, so I asked him. He told me that it had nothing to do with getting better and everything to do with having an hour to play his favorite sport during school time.

Yeah, that Jimmy loved his tennis.

Anyway, after graduation Jimmy and I continued to play game at the school's court, since they never took down the net.

But, despite my best efforts, I could never beat Jimmy. As a matter of fact, he ALWAYS won the first point. and it was always downhill for me after that. Yeah, I really sucked at the game.

Eventually, it got to the point that I realized that I would never, ever be any good at the game. So, on September the 18th 1979, I hung up my racket and never looked back.

I also stopped hanging around with Jimmy and last I heard, he moved up state.

You know, watching Serena Williams' blow up this past week really brought back some bad memories. Especially, since not even one time was I ever able to beat Jimmy, and worse yet, losing EVERY SINGLE FREAKING FIRST POINT.


I tell ya... I really hated Ashbury's summer of loves.

[Skittles]

1. I WILL BEAT SOME JIMMY ASS

YES INDEED

[Bertha Venation]

5. SKITTLES

I need advice. My Skittles has been getting her ass kicked by one of her children. What can I do? :(

[Skittles]

6. KICK SOME CHILDREN ASS

actually, I've got a problem with Riff Raff - he is three and terrorizes Clancy (age 11) - corners the old guy and won't let him eat, and sits on top of the box and taps the old guy on the head when he's in there trying to do his business - I've got the squirt gun ready - a squirt gun can be a wonderful deterrent and is vet-recommended for behavior modification :D

[Captain Hilts]

2. I played in high school. Taught myself on a backboard and had strong, picture-perfect

ground strokes. A beast of a serve.

No footwork.
No netgame.

Bad wrists from all that time on a backboard turned me into an ambidextrous player. It freaked out opponents who never knew when I was finishing the serve which hand the racket would end up in.

I just also hated being out in the heat and preferred to play when it was cold. No one else played in the cold.

My tennis game was revived for a year - 1993 - when I lived in Moscow where it cost a dollar fifty an hour to play on clay courts and a dollar an hour on regular asphalt/composition courts at the Central Sports Complex of the Army in NW Moscow.

If you tried to play longer than you paid for, the babushka running things would send a large black dog out after you.

[Bossy Monkey]

3. Ohhhhhh, the PUNishment! n/t

[Bertha Venation]

4. Wow, Mr S.

I expected to read that that was the day you blew your knee out.

:hug: