This is part 2 of the Fox Lane series. I mentioned that at lunch I would go to the gym and watch basketball with my friend John. There was a peg board there going up to about 3o feet. If you've never seen a peg board, it's a strength training device. What you do is take these 2 iron baton like pegs and climb by inserting them into the hole in the board. The holes are uneven so that one arm is up while the other is down. John was climbing and got to the 3rd hole before returning. That's also one of the tricks. You have to save enough strength and energy to be able to climb back down. I say " Semenetz what are you doing?" he answers " My parents want me to try out for the gymnastics team. They say it will look good on my college resume." Thinking to myself my isn't fate lending a helping hand in all this. I say "I go to practice there everyday. Of couurse I'm doing detention, not training." He tries climbing the board again this time getting 4 hole holes before he returns . " Yeah Jody here's the thing. I can't keep getting into trouble like we used to. If I'm going to have any chance of going to college I'm going to need a clean record. I also am going to do my best to make this team. My parents can't afford to send me to college. I'm going to have to find some sort of scholarship." Impressed I say " Wow man you actually sound serious about this. I'll keep you company climbing the peg board if you want." John says " Yeah that would be cool. That way I won't be the only dork advertising just how weak and pitiful they are." I respond " O.k. snapperhead.." John interupts and says " Snapperhead, who you calling a snapperhead here snapperhead?" I answer " Well isn't that just like a snapperhead. I'm calling you a snapperhead, snapperhead." John puffs out his chest and I think oh boy here we go again. Instead of fighting like we always do he say " Jody I'll bet you a months english homework against a month of math i can kick your ass climbing this board." I say " Deal" So we keep trying to climb this board looking like elementary kids trying to do a pullup. Girls are laughing, guys are pointing. Then this thug with long greasy hair and a real badass attitude comes to us saying to me " Yo dipstick, pegs now and you live" Confused I just stand there holding them " I say You want me to climb? or give them to you?" Pointing at John he says " You look like you have a few more watts than your girlfriend here." He holds out his hands. John grabs the pegs from me and gives them to him. Saying "Jody what the fuck?" Still in an A.D.D. trance I watch this guy in a red checkered flannel shirt with ripped jeans and filthy work boots fly up the peg board, almost hopping from hole to hole. He like lightning goes down and then unbelievably goes up again. He does this 3 times in a row without stopping. Jumping down he says to me "Yo heads up and tosses me the pegs. Without looking I catch them without realizing. He walks up close to me and sticks his face close to mine as if he's near sighted. He's checking me out to see if I'll flinch or back up. Finally he steps back shaking hs head as if amazed and just says "Woooah". Then he turns and struts away pushing aside the kids blocking the door who are watching basketball. John mimicks the same motion and says "Is anybody in there?" imitating the Pink Floyd song. He steps back and says "He's gone you can breath, Oh brave one! Do you have any idea who that is?" I answer " Uhh Mr. Woooah" John laughs saying " That's right Mr.Wooah! Mr. Numbskull. No, he's John Lawler resident murdering psycho from the smoking area, and get this also Captain of the gymnastics team." My synapsis are beginning to repaint the picture of yesterdays detention. He was the guy on the rings! I say "John I remember him from yesterday. Holy shit! This dude is amazing!" Demonstrating with my arms I try to sow John some of the things he did on the ring. I continue " He held this cross position like we're standing here." John says "Look out here come Mr. Mergardt" He walks up to me and says pointing to John. "Do you know each other?" John pipes in "Yeah we're best friends. He's pretty strong too." Sharply looking at John he says " When I want your opinion I'll ask for it." John replies " Jeez I was just saying.." Mr. Mergardt snaps his head facing him and says " O.k. best friend you just earned a seat next to your buddy over here. See you at 6pm or I'll have a nice little chat with your mom." Mergardt looks to me and I say " Yeah since last year. Now I have a question for you. How come you're letting him try out and not me?" Suddenly taken back he looks down and says "I don't have a real answer for that. Are you interested in becoming a gymnast? I didn't take you seriously yesterday." I reply " O.k. here's how I understand it. Climb the peg board, be tough and be ballsy. That about it?" Smiling Mergardt says "O.k. hot shot talk is cheap. Go ahead let's see if you can climb the peg board." I hold my hand out to John for the pegs. He passes them to me and I put them in at the bottom. I climb 6 holes and run out of gas so I come back down. I turn to John and say " Go ahead stud beat that." John takes the pegs and climbs 7 holes and comes down saying " In your face Shultz." I grab them from him and climb 8 holes coming down I turn to Mergardt and say " It's pretty much like this with anything we do." Mergardt starts walking away and we look at each other and shrug. Suddenly he turns and yell " Yo wit brothers lets go." John say to me softly " Wit brothers?" I say " Must be some 1950's jive talk." John laughs and says while making a wave like motion with his hand "Yeah cool daddy-O Slip me some skin, cause I'm feelin' groovy" We snicker and Mergardt turns around and we both stop. He goes down to the basement where I got caught with Patty,
Then he pulls out a set of keys that would make any janitor jealous and opens the wrestling room. He turns on the sodium vapor lights and we hear "Ping,Ping" until they slowly heat up and give light. There's a universal gym:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Gym_Equipment there in the middle of the floor. He takes off his jacket and undoes his tie. Laying them on a wooden bench he rolls up his sleeves and says "Do exactly as I say. Go around to each station and do as many exercise as you can in 15 min." We each start at opposite ends and work around. There's bench press,leg press pull downs, rowing, and dips. At the end of 15 min he says "Stop" We stand huffing and puffing hands on our hips head down. Mergardt say " Not bad gentlemen you just earned yourselves a probationary period of 1 week. See you today at practice" He puts his jacket and tie back on and gestures for us to follow him back to where we were. Back at the peg board we look at each other and give each high 5's saying " Oh yeah" We play on the peg board until it's time to go to class. At 2 o'clock we head over to the gym. Waiting there we see the team guys drift in and go to the locker room to change. We have nothing to change into. Coach Mergardt arrives and calls everyone together for a meeting. He begins " O.k. guys we have 2 new guys interested in trying out. Just like you they have 1 week to learn and put a routine together on at least 1 event. Give them a fair chance and treat them like you were treated." Everyone splits up and we just stand there wondering where to go. Lawler comes strutting over to us and says "Let's go" We follow him and he jumps up to the rings and says " Give me a still." We look at each other and neither of us know what to do. Lawler says "Would one of you wits stop me from swinging?" I go and grab his waist to stop him from swinging and back away. All of a sudden he blasts over into a high dislocate and somehow ends up in a handstand. From there he slowly lowers to an iron cross. Then he rolls back to an "L" position and presses to a handstand. Fom there he drops and flies into a double back flip to a perfect landing. He walks away we look at each other to see who's going first. I say " I'll go, give me lift" John lifts me by my waist as I jump to grab the dangling rings still moving from Lawlers turn. Finally I grab them and just hang there. Having no idea what to do I jump down and say "I don't know what to do" Mergardt comes over and begins to teach us the basics. From there we go to parallel bars where a weird guy named Weldon is in tight pants with suspenders. Weldon says to us " When I jump you pull the board away. " He runs and vaults into the air grabs the bars and flips under lets go and is somehow in a handstand. From there he swings and turns and finally does a straight body flip off to a landing. He nods a thanks and I ask "Could you teach us something?" He glares at us and says " Do you have any idea who I am?" I answer "Just some amazing guy on the parallel bars. That's all I know." He replies " If I was so amazing I would already have qualified for states." I just look at him and finally he says " Give me a hand we'll lower the bars I can practice my stutz and diamidov." Copying him I loosen the nob, hold the bar and pull out the pin lowering the bars one at a time to where Weldon says to.With one hand he pulls himself to a vertical support saying "The most important thing about parallel bes is the quality of your swing. Don't bend at the waist trying to increase your swing. You need to learn how to dip in your shoulders and swing with a relaxed thorax. He dip in his shoulders and starts swinging to almost vertical on both ends of the swing. Swinging down he goes up and around turning and landing on the side where I'm watching. He motions with his hand for me to go. I walk between the bars and look at him. He says " Go" I say "How do I get up there?" He says put your hands in front of you and grab the bars. Now jump and pull your body to your hands until you are in support." I do what he says and low and behold I am holding myself up. I swing back and forth about 10 times and my arms start to shake. I jump down and say " Thanks" Weldon nods and goes on performing things I don't even know how to describe. At least then I didn't. We wander from event to event trying different moves. On the floor we meet a guy named Tommy Oliva. He tumbles without making a sound. He teaches us cartwheels and rolls. On high bar there is a guy who resembles a combination between Sylvester Stallone in Rambo and a lead singer of an 80's big hair-band even though we're in the 70's in the story. His name is Drews from the name Andrews. He's big like 5'10" which is tall for us. He jumps to the bar and kips up and cast into giants around the bar. Pirouettes to giants in the other direction and finally flying off in a sky high dismount. Upon landing he goes " Whooa!" We look at each other and say "What's the deal with 'wooa'?" John asks him to teach him something and he just ignores him. No matter what we do it's like we're invisible to this guy. Mergardt calls us all in and talks about the up coming competition in 3 weeks. We spread out for strength and we try to keep up with at lest push ups and sit ups. We go to the bus and go home all on different buses. It's strange riding the bus at night. I get home and tell everyone about what an amazing day I had. I try to explain what I saw and did. Immediately I understood why gymnastics is so difficult to explain. It's a visual or feel thing. The moves they did looked so scary. I wonder if I will ever do any of those tricks I saw today. These characters took on almost mythical proportions even though intellectually I know they were just normal guy doing extraordinary things. This is a story of the heroes of my past and how they reached down and pulled me up. Well that's it for tonight Part 3 tomorrow. Thanks Jody
No comments:
Post a Comment