Tennis Meditation

     We all have those special things in our lives that we all take pleasure in doing.  I remember the my grandmother (that would be my mom's mom) would have her morning coffee and cigarette she would also play a game of solitaire.  That was her time to sit and ponder about the day that lay ahead.  It was her moment of being tranquil with herself.  My brother would go outside from sun up to what it seemed as sun down and shoot hoops in the driveway with the jambox shouting out the sounds of Beastie Boys or Run DMC.  My sister preferred things a bit quieter by painting ceramics while watching the latest soap opera on TV.  When I was in junior high my serene moment came from playing tennis out in the back yard.

     I couldn't wait until the spring air melted most of the winter snow away.  If the weather was nice enough I would shovel off the back patio to clear away the snow and remove the wet, soggy leaves that nestled in near the back of the garage from the previous autumn.  Our garage was attached to our light yellow house in Saginaw.  Behind the garage laid a sun-faded red and white checked board style patio.   Two wooden black birds were nailed to the siding forever posed in flight.  To me they were targets waiting to be wacked over and over with a tennis ball as I learned to control where I send the ball after I hit it with the racquet.  If my brother didn't take over the jambox for his music then I would sneak it outside for my tunes of Bell Biv Devoe or Milli Vanilli  It didn't matter much to me because my brother and I did have similar taste in music.  If the music was pumped up with loud bass we were happy. 

     Feeling the warm sun upon my face I would slowly unzip the black jacket of my racquet and remove my metal framed Wilson racquet.  My right hand would grip firmly around the handle as I took a few practice swings and felt the wind swish around it.  I would reach down and pick up one of the tennis balls that I brought outside with me.  Standing near the corner of the patio I would bounce the ball off the ground and tap it with my racquet.  The ball would fly up and smack against the side of the garage with a thunking sound.  The ball would bounce back onto the red and white patio squares and I would swing my arm around to hit the ball back to the side.  I would work on my swings of back hand and forward hand.  I  pretended that I was Steffi Graf, effortlessly going after the ball and hitting it back to the other side.   I had to be careful of where I sent the ball because there was a window towards the side of the garage that I didn't want to hit.  Occasionally the ball would tap into the window and I would hold my breath waiting for it to break but it never did. 

     There was something about the rhythm of the ball plunking the racquet, thunking on the siding and plopping on the ground that gave me a calming effect.   PLUNK!  THUNK!  PLOP!  PLUNK!  THUNK!  PLOP!  PLUNK!  THUNK!  PLOP!   Over and over the sounds sent me into deep thought.  My body would carry out the actions while my mind would start to analyze my frustrations, plot out the "what if's" in my life, or plan a story outline of something I wanted to write about.  Even with the music blaring in the background my thoughts came across loud and clear.  At that moment there was clarity in my life.

     My  mom knew how much I enjoyed tennis and set me up for lessons through the township.  I would walk over by Zaul Library to the tennis courts to take my lessons.  I would convince one of my friends, Keisha, to join me over at the courts to play one on one.  One time there were older teenage boys playing and they asked us to join them for playing doubles.  It was her and I against them.  I can't remember who won or lost but I can still recall giving each other a high five when they would miss the ball and we would get the score.  I even signed up on the White Pine Middle School intramural tennis team after school and did quite well with it.  

     Soon my attentions were drawn away from tennis as I got older.  We ended up moving to a new house and I didn't have my patio to practice on anymore.  I have taken my children to the tennis courts we have in town and gave them a chance to play.  They tried it but they didn't have the passion for it like I did.  There are days where I long to hold the racquet and have a good game of volleying the ball back and forth over the net, running up and down the court after the ball and feeling the force of the ball up against the racquet as I swing to hit it.  Maybe it is the carefree moments of swinging the racquet and hitting the ball up against the house that I miss.  Maybe. 

    

Will Bubbles Become The New Illegal Toy

     If we all think hard enough we can remember at least one toy in our childhood which now is blacklisted from children to play with today.  My mom would tell me that as a child her and some neighborhood friends would have competitions of rolling mercury balls down the driveway and seeing who would win.  Today, we have to turn in our mercury thermometers and exchange it for digital ones.  I understand the evils of mercury but my point is, that at a time in our history, mercury was a toy. 

     Think of the playgrounds back in yesteryears.  Remember the teeter-totter?  Now look at today's newer playgrounds.  What is missing?  The teeter-totter.  Due to our generation of giving each other cherry bombs and hopping off just to let the person on the other side come crashing down this outdoor activity is now deemed dangerous.  Kids get hurt.  This is a part of childhood.  It is learning about knowing your limits and figuring out situtations.  I even remember falling off backwards trying to do a silly stunt and having the wind knocked out of me.  It hurt.  But I got up, wiped away tears, and went back at learning to master the silly stunt I was doing. 

     Another playground item that is missing in today's playground is the merry-go-round.  You can still find these in older parks.  Kids would spin themselves sick for the fun of it.  When the child was sick enough to vomit they would stand off to the side, get sick while other kids laughed with delight, then the sick kid would hop back on for more spinning.  Again, children got hurt from time to time but it was expected.  Now the once favorite item at the parks is disappearing.

     Lawn Jarts.  Popular outdoor toy where a person has to toss this razor sharp object into a circle placed on the ground and the jart will stick into the Earth.  Sadly, a little girl died and her dad went on a crusade to have them banned.  In 1988, a full ban was in place.  You can still play the game but it has a weighted ball for a tip instead of the pointed end.  As a child I remember playing with the original jarts.  It was fun.  I recall my friend David and I, up at our cabin at Houghton Lake, would toss them up in the air real high and run out of the way before the jart hit us as gravity pulled it back towards the groud.  Looking back I realized we were being stupid with it and not realizing the dangers of it at the time but I am sure if either one of us got struck by a jart then we would then of known its dangers.  We would of pulled the jart out and continued playing. 

     There have been children in past generations who had their mouth washed out with soap.  I know I chewed on a bar every now and then growing up.  And I deserved it.  I don't disagree with that punishment I received at all.  Today, it is child abuse for having a child's mouth washed out with soap.  In the new liquid soaps children have got sick over digesting it. 

     The other day I was outside blowing bubbles with my 4 year old son, Levi.  As I blew into the bubble I was thinking that I am putting my germs into this soapy bubble.  I am healthy so I wasn't really worried but I gave more thought into it especially when my son tried catching the bubbles with his mouth.  I watched my germ filled bubbles floating off into the day sky thinking my germs are being spread everywhere.  What if I was a preschool teacher blowing bubbles for my class and they tried eating the bubbles?  Is the soap used for the bubbles strong enough to kill off my germs?  What if I had a cold and did that?  Would my cold germs carry over and infect another child?  Think of the birthday cake.  The birthday person blows all over the cake and then we eat it without a thought to it.  If we were in a restaurant and a waitress blows all over our food we would be grossed out by it and not eat it, but for cake it is okay?!  Popping someone else's bubbles with their germs inside is okay?  Or perhaps the next generation will discover the ill ramifications of blowing bubbles and this once beloved activity of childhood will be then deemed dangerous. 

As a final twist of thought; the yo-yo was once used as a weapon. 

My Performance In GVSU's Renaissance Festival

     As a teen I fell in love with the theater.  I got my first taste of acting as a freshman in high school and embraced it.  I did a few plays in high school and performed in dinner theaters for the church I went to.  In my Senior year of high school I earned enough points to gain the rank of a lifetime thespian (an actor after the Greek actor and playwright Thespis), including a free one year subscription to some drama magazine.  There is something about stepping up on stage and putting a piece of yourself to make the character come to life.  I thought after high school my acting days were over even though I still had the love for the theater. 

My outfit for the ball scene

     Early in the summer of 1995, after I graduated, I got a call from the director of the Drama Department at Grand Valley State University.  She read my transcripts and was interested in having me be a part of the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet for the Renaissance festival.  I was more than thrilled to be part of a University production.  She told me practices were the following week and if I was interested in being a part of the play to show up.  I told her I would be happy to be there. 

     I walked along the buildings at Grand Valley State University realizing that in about 6 weeks I would be going from building to building hurrying myself along with a crowd of other people going from class to class.  The campus looked so big and I seemed so small.  I finally located the theater.  Older classmen were already there rehearsing part of their lines up on stage.  Incoming freshman were scattered along the front few rows of the seats watching the stage.  An older lady approached me and asked me who I was.  I gave her my name and she flips through a clipboard with several names on it.  She introduced herself as the head of the drama department.  For the life of me I cannot remember her name.  She told me the freshman are sitting up front and that as freshman we will be the extra's and a few will have small speaking parts.  I smiled and shook her hand as she passed me a copy of the play Romeo and Juliet and I made my way to sit among the other nervous looking incoming freshman.

     


I am the the second from the left.

Romeo with
the backstage director

     Over the summer the cast grew together as a family.  We would  share our frustrations, laugh about the guys wearing the cod piece, and tease a few of the ladies that had to dress like a harlot.  We would wrestle around the green room or stand just outside the doors talking and smoking.  When work was to be done, we did it but most of the time we just goofed off. 



     I did get a small speaking role as one of the watchmen.  It was only one or two lines which I forgot what they were but nonetheless I was happy as I can be about it.  I learned that play inside and out.  I read it once as a freshman in high school but I never let the story sink in.  Doing the play over and over it became a part of me and understanding the Elizabethan language.  We had a choreographer come in and teach us the dances in that time period for the ball scene.  I was one of the 8 couples up on stage dancing around and twilling.  It was a very graceful style of dance.  I stood in front of my partner.  Our right palms touched at face level as we spun around 3/4th of a circle.  Then we switched hand and were now palm to palm with our left hand and spun the other direction 3/4th of a circle.  I would lower my head in a curtsey and he would bow in my direction.  I loved it all. 

     There was a team of seamstresses that came in to fit us for our different costumes.  The gowns were beautiful.  There was a large room off the side of the theater that had sewing machines dotted over every table, pieces of cloth strung everywhere, a large closet filled with outfits and so much more.  These ladies did a great job at what they did.  At the time I never even touched a sewing machine and here these young ladies were designing these wonderful outfits.  I was impressed.

Prince of Verona

     One day we were told to wear our costumes and do some small skits at the over by the clock tower at GVSU.  I remember doing the dance scene outside feeling like I was in that time period.  People gathered around and watched us perform.  It was a fun experience walking around in costume playing the part.  The circle of people clapped for us as we bowed. 
     Soon it was show time.  We performed several shows throughout the week.  We even did one for local school children.  We had to edit some of the scenes, like the bedroom scene of Romeo and Juliet, for it to be child appropriate. I was in the opening scene as an extra.  I remember the curtain being raised, looking at my theater family with looks of excitement in their faces.  There was a moment of intense pause.  Then as if a magical moment happened we all came to life in character.  I was quietly chatting away with another extra, fawning over Benvolio and ooohing as Tybalt comes walking by.  Even now thinking about the lights shining down on us, the hush of the crowd and the words that were being said, I still get exciting chills about the whole thing.



One of the actors goofing off in the green room.
You can see the monitor and stage in the background.

     At one of the plays I forgot to go onstage during one of my scenes.  A few of us were goofing off in the green room.  There was a TV with sound in there so we can tell what scene the play is at.  We were not paying attention.  One of the directors pops her head into the green room to tell us to get ready for the next scene.  I looked over at her like a deer in headlights, then over to the monitor and realized I was supposed to be up on the balcony of the stage saying my one line!  I was so upset with myself.  The other two "watchmen" covered up for me but I felt horrible. 

Some of the actors

More extras in the play

Montague and an extra

Lounging out before a show.  I am sitting in the
middle and J.J. is laying across us.

A few of the actresses in the make-up room getting ready.



.

Some actresses before the show having fun.

    

A few of the actors showing off their tights.



Before a performance.  I am on the right.
 

Relaxing in the Green Room.



Juliet's Nurse ~ one of the paid actors for the play.



J.J. with one of the actors.

The Friar with an actor waiting to go on stage in the Green Room.



Another actress back in the Green Room waiting to go on stage.





JJ in the lower left.
We were signing advertising
posters during one performance.

     After the plays came the cast parties.  They realized I had never been drunk before.  It was their goal to see me wasted.  After the first show we went to someone's house and I was liquored up.  Yes, I was three sheets to the wind.  JJ, one of the extras, read out a 500 question purity test for everyone to take.  She was quite proud she had the lowest score.  There were some things that I didn't want to know about people that I learned that night.  The next morning we had an early practice for the next show later on that night.  Most of the cast and crew crawled in with hangovers.  I came skipping along.  They gave me looks of disgust.  "Don't you have a hangover?" they asked.

     "Nope!  I feel great!  On with the show!"  I would happily prance along. 

     In 1996, Hollywood remade the movie Romeo and Juliet staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.  Right away I fell in love with the movie.  We own the movie and my children love watching it as well.  I like how Hollywood adapted it to modern times.  When I hear the words it takes me back to when I was 18 again, up on stage, seeing everyone from the cast saying the same lines and going through the motions. 

     That was the last time I was on stage.  I would love to get back into the theater but not at this time in my life.  Someday....someday.