To accept the Grover Challenge, I will regale you with a story involving a broom; Ward Broom Hockey. As youth we were way excited when the Young Men activity on Thursday Night (Yes Thursday. I grew up NEVER seeing Mork & Mindy because it was on when we had Mutual Night!) was Broom Hockey. It was played in the gym, and we didn't have a nice wood floor. We had cement with these tile things. It was hard! We would prepare our brooms; wrapping the lower quarter of the stick with duct tape or black electrical tape (we figured it would toughen up the broom). The puck was always a roll of masking tape and the goal was the where the basketball key lines met the out of bounds line. The goalie usually was on all fours with their broom laying flat to keep the puck out. Shirts vs. Skins, always, and it never failed that some of the more "fleshy" fellas were Skins, always. (Nothing like squirting off some big sweaty dudes shoulder- kinda like pinching a watermelon seed) Well, things would really get going and relatively violent. I remember one time going for the puck and getting checked right through the door, out into the hallway and almost killing one of the young women leaders. Ah, but such was Broom Hockey. One time we videotaped our game. It was hilarious to watch the mayhem, especially in slow motion.
When I was a senior in high school, there was a Young Adult Broom Ball game at the Ice Capades Chalet ice rink. My brother asked me to go, so I pulled on some football pants and we headed over. Wow! We never had injuries like this when we played. Maybe the co-ed game shouldn't be done. A girl named Shiree was coming up to the ball, tried to put on the brakes, lost her footing, and was slammed into the side while both feet were in the air. Brian McGhie took a broom handle shot to the mouth and left some teeth! There were numerous injuries the whole night. The funnest part for me was sliding into the real cocky dudes and taking them out. They were getting mad at me, but hey, it's broom ball! Toughen up, Chump!
Oh, there was this red headed girl, she was probably voted the "Most Athletic" in her high school, well, she kept coming after me, trying to take me out. Sorry, sister. She ended up on the ice a number of times.
You know, watching Roller Ball so many times actually paid off!
5 comments:
Wow, it's true. Snyd has a story for everything. I could have done without the watermelon seed analogy (the thought of sweaty, squirty men makes me want to womit).
That is soo sad that you missed Mork and Mindy growing up!! However, it does explain a few things. . . . .
:)
that was always the big highlight of my YM/YW days too- playing broom hockey. but i dont know that it ever got as crazy as your stories.
we're boring.
and what's the grover challenge?
Video tape? Back then? Was it the kind where the camera had cords trailing off to a separate recording unit that one slung across one's shoulder?
Ah, early '80s technology.
Actually it was one of those cameras that you had to have the VCR with it. It was like a channel 5 news camera. I think the tripod was made of titanium to hold it up!
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