I did. I do. But until that phone call, I hadn't thought about it in years and I certainly never thought that it might have been out of the ordinary. Laura's husband Chris and his boys, all North Jersey-ites, didn't believe her. Hence the rowdy noise in the background and the need for the validation call. It's good to have long-time friends who remember things that you can't or who you can call and ask if such and such really happened. As we talked, we realized maybe not everyone did this in junior high...
And as odd as it sounds in the context of the world we live in today, this full blown gymnastics period certainly happened in our junior high gym classes. When I say full blown, I mean uneven bars, vault, pommel horse, rings, parallel bars, beam, floor, etc. We were surely privileged to have all of that equipment in three junior highs in the school district. Everyone's name was on a chart and the more difficult things you picked and executed, the more points you got.
I do not walk gently in this world. I am a Tuesday's child not full of physical grace. But once upon a time, I did a cartwheel off of a balance beam and executed a dismount from the uneven bars. I did not win a medal but I didn't break my ass or die from fear either. I consider that a win. I'm sure I wasn't alone in that - out of every gym period there were probably one to three people with any skill and the rest of us were like newborn colts trying to find their legs and balance.
We all discussed it this past weekend at Kim's shower and were laughing and crowing about things we did. We were in junior high from September 1989 - June 1992. Everyone participated. Everyone competed. There were injuries. We laughed at each other. We survived. No one got sued.
Can you imagine this taking place today? If you are around my age (39), did you do this in your school?
Fellow Neshaminy grads, do you remember this? My brother, six years younger than me, didn't have this curriculum. Laura's brother, three years younger, did. I'm curious when it began and when it ended. Do we owe this to having Joel Baba, an alternate to the 1952 Olympics team, on staff?
