Looking at a Dream from the Sideline: Step 102

When a person wakes up from a night of dreaming it is sometimes difficult to remember what the dream was about or what it means. Sometimes there are just fragments of images or sequences that usually don’t quite fit together. Actually, it isn’t too different from the dreams one has for the path life is supposed to take. So, it was with my dream of being an athlete.

After being consigned to the bench for failing to tackle the ball carrier or at least take out some of the interference blocking for him I spent the remainder of the first game feeling sorry for myself and wishing I could just vanish from view. Nobody really cared what I had done they were all too busy licking their own wounds after the disastrous defeat.

Before our next practice I had Coach Gunderson for physical education class. We were outside in our t-shirts and shorts playing touch football on the blacktop when he called me over to talk. I thought for sure he was going to ream me out for my poor play in the game, but instead he noticed I could really throw the ball and wondered if I’d ever considered playing quarterback.

When we practiced that afternoon he had me throw the ball to a few of the ends on the team. At the end of practice Coach Gunderson asked me if instead of being a running back behind Ariana and Nemovitz I’d like to be the quarterback behind Wiemeri. Although it didn’t occur to me neither team had thrown the ball even once in the first game and I probably would prefer to be the guy taking the handoff than giving it, I accepted the change.

In physical education class Coach Gunderson would tell me to have one of the guys on the team go long so I could launch a long pass, but in practice we mainly stuck to buttonhooks. In reality Wiemeri and I spent most of our time making sure we placed the ball properly between the running backs upper and lower arms.

It was a long, lonely, losing season. We never won a game and only threw the ball twice. Both were buttonhooks, where the end would take a few steps, stop and turn around to catch the ball the quarterback threw. Of the two passes thrown only one was caught and the receiver was tackled immediately for maybe a two-yard gain.

Most of the games are just images or sequences out of order floating around in my memory. The only thing that changed was the perspective since the rest of the season I spent my time on the bench. Even that isn’t totally accurate since many of the sophomore games were played on fields that didn’t have benches and so I stood along the sidelines with the rest of the players whose dreams were fading away.

At the end of the season I told Wiemeri I probably would not compete with him for the quarterback position in the following year. Then, the reality hit. Wiemeri told me he never planned to play varsity football he just went out for sophomore football to get in condition for the sport he really cared about, basketball. Besides, he figured the quarterbacks for the next two years, Spanbauer and Neubauer, were already on the varsity team, and he was right.

Oh well, my basketball skills were not too good even playing alone in the backyard, so I decided I’d try wrestling. Since everyone wrestled at a given weight, at least the monsters would be the same size.

I Have to Wonder Where This Will Lead: Step 65

At Grantosa Drive Elementary the Jewish population was probably reflective of the national average, which for my lifetime has been right around two percent. While the percentage rose significantly at Samuel Morse Junior High to lets say ten percent, and became higher when limited to those interested in acting, taking into account the propensity of young Jewish students to gravitate to the arts, odds still favored those of a different faith being selected for the lead in the school’s first Christmas play. Such was not the case. Actually, one who recalls the play better than me, who can’t even remember its title, might contend Melinda shared the lead. Far be it from me to dispute such a contention since it’s difficult to recall even a single line of dialogue. What I do recall is though it certainly didn’t carry the weight of O’Henry’s Gift of the Magi it had something to do with gift giving. Needless to say, Mrs. Haggerty, aware of the law governing separation of church and state and highly sensitive to the feelings of students, selected a story with a secular theme. Although there were some humorous moments in the play and I did my best to punch up my lines that got a laugh, the role of Woody was not nearly as much fun as Oakley Cheever. Melinda played my sister and Mike W. who lived up on the corner of Lancaster Avenue played our butler. Woody and his sister’s parents made short appearances at the beginning and the end of the play, but most of the drama in the one act unfolded between the two children and their butler. Let me just point out that while Mrs. Haggerty was sensitive to the kids in the audience, to the best of my knowledge none of them had a butler. Every evening after rehearsal the three of us would walk home together since we all lived in the same direction. Mike W. whose size and demeanor made him an easy selection for the prototypical butler was six months older and a semester ahead of me. He revealed he just wanted to do something with his extra time but his main extracurricular interest was becoming an offensive lineman on the football team next fall at Custer High. I’m sure I shared my interest in becoming a doctor an idea that persisted from the time I broke my leg until I took my first chemistry class. Even though the bug had bitten me, the idea of pursuing acting, as a career seemed to be the kind of crazy illusive fantasy my dream of being a medical doctor turned out to be. On the other hand, Melinda, six months my junior and a semester behind me, held no illusions about acting. She said she knew it would not be easy and her desire was not to become the next Shelley Fabares or Patty Duke, but to attend a university where acting was taken seriously. She said she knew Mrs. Haggerty took acting seriously helping us build our character, find our marks, use props effectively, and project from our diaphragms. Being so much older and wiser I listened intently, but dismissed her vision as naïve. How well we actually performed the day we presented the play to the school is unclear, but I do recall two things that came as a result. Right after the play, when my parents came backstage, Mrs. Haggerty said she was proud of me and I possessed poise and maturity beyond my years. All right, she was probably being kind. The other thing was Jeff, one of the most popular kids at Morse who would later become the quarterback of the Marshall High football team, started calling me Woody. Mike W. did become an offensive lineman on the Custer High football team the next fall in his sophomore year. As for Melinda, I lost track of her and do not have a clue if she ever became an actress, but if she happens to be reading this now I would love to hear from her.