Wednesday, October 05, 2005
My Sports and Arts Memories
Max has been mentioning his memories from Sports and Arts in a recent post and I figured I'd share the things I remember most vividly from Sports and Arts as well.
As Max mentioned, you had to choose at least two arts to fill in your schedule. I always chose Industrial Arts, which was actually just wood shop. The reason was that you would get to use tools and crap, and also you would have something to take home with you at the end of the session. One time I had the great idea to make the Batman logo and paint it to take home and then realized that every other kid also had the same idea so we all ended up making like 15 Batman logos that year. Until very recently I had both a napkin holder and a birdhouse that I made in wood shop when I was like 12.
The most popular sport by far was floor hockey. For some reason they either didn't have basketball, or we all sucked at it at that point, or something. I feel like basketball should have been the most popular, but it wasn't. Anyway, I was a decent floor hockey player, but I wasn't nearly as good as some other gies, like Mike Gray or Matt Guiney, who I remember were particularly good. One year Mike Gray was only going to go for one week of the two week session because he was going either to a different camp or on vacation, so he was going to score as many goals as possible in the one week and he ended up with like 25, which averaged to 5 a day. In that same time I had like 6 or 7.
I also remember that I was far and away the best goalie at floor hockey, so they always tried to make me play there. The thing is that I didn't want to be the goalie because I wanted to run around. Incidentally, the same thing happened to me in college when I played indoor soccer one semester. I was the best goalie by a long shot, but I hated playing it because the only reason I took the class was to run around the gym for a while. They would only make my play goalie if the game was on the line. I'm not sure why I'm such a good goalie, as I've never played an organized sport where goalie was a position.
The most vivid memory I have of Sports and Arts also involved Matt Guiney, for some reason. Unrelated to this story, but point of interest: Matt Guiney is best known as being the only 9th grader in the history of Sports and Arts. You had to stop going in 8th grade, but Matt and Brian's mom somehow got the rules changed so that Matt could go for one more year. Anyway, one year a popular game to play was called Initial Baseball. The rules were that you would think of a baseball player and give his initials to your opponent. If your opponent knew the guy right away, then he would get a home run. If he didn't know it he would ask you which league he was in, National or American. If he got it at that point, then he got a triple, If he still didn't know it he would ask what position he played. If he answered then it was a double. Finally you would ask which team he was on, and then you'd get a single. If I was thinking of Derek Jeter, for example, I would say D.J. and if you didn't know it then I would say "American League", and then I would say "Shortstop", and then I would say "Yankees". If you didn't get it at all, then you got an out.
This is probably the most random memory in history, by the way. Matt Guiney was playing some kid in Initial Baseball and was winning by a huge margin. Then Matt gives the kid the initials "W.W." and says it in such a way where Matt knew this kid would never get the answer. It was almost like Neil Guiney telling a story in that slow, deliberate tone. Picture Matt going "Double U....Double U." Anyway, the kid thinks for like half a second and says, "Walt Weiss. Home run. Yeah." Matt was a little bit stunned that the kid got it, and the kid was all proud of himself, but the score was still like 10-2 or something.
Another Sports and Arts memory is of Nock Hockey. At lunch you could borrow a Nock Hockey board and play tournaments. They only had a limited number, though, so they had a lottery every day. At the beginning of the day, every kid who you were even remotely friends with would write their names down and if you knew a kid with a little sister who didn't play Nock Hockey, then you would put their name down too. If anyone who you knew won the lottery, then everyone got to play that day. The one caveat was that whoever won the lottery got to play the first game against someone else, I guess as a reward for winning. Sometimes two or three people would win the lottery and you'd get two or three boards at lunch time.
When we were 10 and thought we were smart asses we decided not just to put our names down on the lottery list, but random names of famous or infamous people. We would put like Ronald Reagan, or the Zodiac Killer, who was notorious at the time around NYC. We did that for a few days before the people in charge said that they were going to start an inquiry regarding the inappropriate names on the lottery list. I think we just stopped right away at that point.
The only other thing I remember well from Sports and Arts was that I would always try to cut my second arts class to go and play floor hockey with whoever was in the gym at the moment. I liked Industrial Arts so I never cut that, but I don't even remember the other types of arts I even registered for. I feel like they had a computer class where you got to play computer games. I know they had calligraphy, but I never took it. They had drama, and at the end of the session they would put on a play or something for the whole camp. They also had dance, which only girls took, and was taught by this woman who we called "Wendy the Musical Midget" because she was probably about 4'11".
Also I remember that one summer my dad worked at the camp, leading one of the sports classes, but I don't recall which one. All the counselors and everyone got called by their first name except for my dad and a couple of other people who were in charge. This was probably because most of the counselors were his former or present students at the high school. On a tangential note, a lot of my dad's students kept in touch with him long after they graduated high school and even when they would come by our house when they were in their 30s or 40s they all still called him Mr. G., almost without exception.
Anyway, that's all I can remember clearly about Sports and Arts. I really did enjoy it, though. I basically hung out with every single one of my friends and played floor hockey and basketball all day during the summer.
As Max mentioned, you had to choose at least two arts to fill in your schedule. I always chose Industrial Arts, which was actually just wood shop. The reason was that you would get to use tools and crap, and also you would have something to take home with you at the end of the session. One time I had the great idea to make the Batman logo and paint it to take home and then realized that every other kid also had the same idea so we all ended up making like 15 Batman logos that year. Until very recently I had both a napkin holder and a birdhouse that I made in wood shop when I was like 12.
The most popular sport by far was floor hockey. For some reason they either didn't have basketball, or we all sucked at it at that point, or something. I feel like basketball should have been the most popular, but it wasn't. Anyway, I was a decent floor hockey player, but I wasn't nearly as good as some other gies, like Mike Gray or Matt Guiney, who I remember were particularly good. One year Mike Gray was only going to go for one week of the two week session because he was going either to a different camp or on vacation, so he was going to score as many goals as possible in the one week and he ended up with like 25, which averaged to 5 a day. In that same time I had like 6 or 7.
I also remember that I was far and away the best goalie at floor hockey, so they always tried to make me play there. The thing is that I didn't want to be the goalie because I wanted to run around. Incidentally, the same thing happened to me in college when I played indoor soccer one semester. I was the best goalie by a long shot, but I hated playing it because the only reason I took the class was to run around the gym for a while. They would only make my play goalie if the game was on the line. I'm not sure why I'm such a good goalie, as I've never played an organized sport where goalie was a position.
The most vivid memory I have of Sports and Arts also involved Matt Guiney, for some reason. Unrelated to this story, but point of interest: Matt Guiney is best known as being the only 9th grader in the history of Sports and Arts. You had to stop going in 8th grade, but Matt and Brian's mom somehow got the rules changed so that Matt could go for one more year. Anyway, one year a popular game to play was called Initial Baseball. The rules were that you would think of a baseball player and give his initials to your opponent. If your opponent knew the guy right away, then he would get a home run. If he didn't know it he would ask you which league he was in, National or American. If he got it at that point, then he got a triple, If he still didn't know it he would ask what position he played. If he answered then it was a double. Finally you would ask which team he was on, and then you'd get a single. If I was thinking of Derek Jeter, for example, I would say D.J. and if you didn't know it then I would say "American League", and then I would say "Shortstop", and then I would say "Yankees". If you didn't get it at all, then you got an out.
This is probably the most random memory in history, by the way. Matt Guiney was playing some kid in Initial Baseball and was winning by a huge margin. Then Matt gives the kid the initials "W.W." and says it in such a way where Matt knew this kid would never get the answer. It was almost like Neil Guiney telling a story in that slow, deliberate tone. Picture Matt going "Double U....Double U." Anyway, the kid thinks for like half a second and says, "Walt Weiss. Home run. Yeah." Matt was a little bit stunned that the kid got it, and the kid was all proud of himself, but the score was still like 10-2 or something.
Another Sports and Arts memory is of Nock Hockey. At lunch you could borrow a Nock Hockey board and play tournaments. They only had a limited number, though, so they had a lottery every day. At the beginning of the day, every kid who you were even remotely friends with would write their names down and if you knew a kid with a little sister who didn't play Nock Hockey, then you would put their name down too. If anyone who you knew won the lottery, then everyone got to play that day. The one caveat was that whoever won the lottery got to play the first game against someone else, I guess as a reward for winning. Sometimes two or three people would win the lottery and you'd get two or three boards at lunch time.
When we were 10 and thought we were smart asses we decided not just to put our names down on the lottery list, but random names of famous or infamous people. We would put like Ronald Reagan, or the Zodiac Killer, who was notorious at the time around NYC. We did that for a few days before the people in charge said that they were going to start an inquiry regarding the inappropriate names on the lottery list. I think we just stopped right away at that point.
The only other thing I remember well from Sports and Arts was that I would always try to cut my second arts class to go and play floor hockey with whoever was in the gym at the moment. I liked Industrial Arts so I never cut that, but I don't even remember the other types of arts I even registered for. I feel like they had a computer class where you got to play computer games. I know they had calligraphy, but I never took it. They had drama, and at the end of the session they would put on a play or something for the whole camp. They also had dance, which only girls took, and was taught by this woman who we called "Wendy the Musical Midget" because she was probably about 4'11".
Also I remember that one summer my dad worked at the camp, leading one of the sports classes, but I don't recall which one. All the counselors and everyone got called by their first name except for my dad and a couple of other people who were in charge. This was probably because most of the counselors were his former or present students at the high school. On a tangential note, a lot of my dad's students kept in touch with him long after they graduated high school and even when they would come by our house when they were in their 30s or 40s they all still called him Mr. G., almost without exception.
Anyway, that's all I can remember clearly about Sports and Arts. I really did enjoy it, though. I basically hung out with every single one of my friends and played floor hockey and basketball all day during the summer.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 10/05/2005 02:44:00 PM
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Wow. I remember the Nok (it's spelled Nok, I think) Hockey very well and I remember Industrial Arts. That was my second "art" usually I believe. I would pay good money to obtain a listing of all the sports and arts offerings in a summer when we went, along with a profile of the respective counselors. (I'm sure it was photocopied and sent home to parents, of course.)
We had to bring lunch, right? (I mean, it was not served there.)
With Nok Hockey, I remember along with there being a limited number of boards, there was an even more limited number of wooden pucks. When those were not available, one usually played with a checker. Playing with a checker changed the whole game, as it was easier to do the trick shots (like putting the puck against the wooden block on front of your goal and applying pressure with your thumb to spin it off the block and directly into the opponents goal). If memory serves, Andrew Bierbryer always wanted to use the stick, while everybody else liked using your hands better. If the puck was on your own blue line, you were allowed to "thumb" it right down the line, off the corner, off the opponent's wooden block, and right in. That was among the easier shots in Nok Hockey. What were the other common rule variants?
We had to bring lunch, right? (I mean, it was not served there.)
With Nok Hockey, I remember along with there being a limited number of boards, there was an even more limited number of wooden pucks. When those were not available, one usually played with a checker. Playing with a checker changed the whole game, as it was easier to do the trick shots (like putting the puck against the wooden block on front of your goal and applying pressure with your thumb to spin it off the block and directly into the opponents goal). If memory serves, Andrew Bierbryer always wanted to use the stick, while everybody else liked using your hands better. If the puck was on your own blue line, you were allowed to "thumb" it right down the line, off the corner, off the opponent's wooden block, and right in. That was among the easier shots in Nok Hockey. What were the other common rule variants?
You were allowed to move the puck one hand length before you shot it. You would usually try to reach it to your blue line and then slide it to the edge to do the easy "down the side, off the block" shot that you mentioned.
Sometimes you could reach the puck to the middle circle and if you hit that shot it was a 5 pointer, and game ender.
If you could reach your own block, then you could do that "thumb against the block" shot you were talking about too.
Other than that, games were to five and you had to start each point with the requisite "hockey 1, hockey 2, hockey 3" accompanied by board knocks on "hockey" and stick clicks on the numbers.
Sometimes you could reach the puck to the middle circle and if you hit that shot it was a 5 pointer, and game ender.
If you could reach your own block, then you could do that "thumb against the block" shot you were talking about too.
Other than that, games were to five and you had to start each point with the requisite "hockey 1, hockey 2, hockey 3" accompanied by board knocks on "hockey" and stick clicks on the numbers.
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