Can you stand a little more on tennis? Tennis balls come up from time to time in the #ChetandBernie series – as anyone familiar with the nation within the nation might expect – but I think – correct me if I’m wrong – there’s only one scene where the game itself is being played. Here’s the tennis lesson from Thereby Hangs A Tail.
The tall blond guy took a ball from the bucket and hit it to Ganz. Ganz wore white shorts, had skinny legs like sticks. He swung his racquet and hit the ball back. The tall guy let it go by, took out another ball. “Brush up, Shermie, brush up. Spin on the ball, always spin on the ball.” He hit the ball over the net. Ganz swung, this time missing the ball completely. “Brush up but through, up but through, up but through,” said the tall guy, sending over another ball. Brush? I knew brushes, saw none around. Maybe tennis was tougher than it looked, but I didn’t worry about that because a ball came bouncing over in our direction – we were now beside the court – and I snatched it out of the air, and who wouldn’t have, the ball being right there practically saying, “Catch me.” And then – this part was a bit harder to understand – I was on the court, racing toward the net. Up and over: not much of a challenge, tennis nets turning out not to be very high, but still it felt so great, being airborne and all, that I kind of twisted around still up there, if you see what I mean, and landed facing back at the net, and the next thing I knew I was jumping over it again, from the other direction, and, yes! doing the spin move once more, and when I landed this time, somehow with two balls in my mouth now – how had that happened? – I –
“Chet!”
7 Comments on “Tennis (More?)”
Chet, you are a great tennis player!
Good day to all.
Greetings!
Chet’s joie de vivre is always infectious. :^)
A nice fall day in this neck of the woods.
Good day to all!
I remember that scene.
Now, could it be it was inspired by someone being around when OFA was practicing his forehand or backhand or serve? My money is on Pearl. I seem to recall a photo of her focused on the tennis ball while Peter was throwing it up and down. Makes me think Pearl has extensive tennis ball experience.
The last time I played tennis was in high school. If I recall I was in junior high when my parents bought me a tennis racket for Christmas. Only I didn’t get it. My Mother hid it and then forgot where. I think it was around July or August when she finally found it behind the sofa. I did use it at school for PE classes when we were doing tennis and I did bring it to my old junior high, which was closer, to just hit balls but it seemed a lot of work to hit balls to no one, gather then up and repeat. At some point I think I did move to the handball courts but that isn’t very tennis-like. After high school I abandoned the racket. I’m just not into sports that much. The most sport I’ve done was some bicycling when there was a charity ride, a little roller skating when then church met at a rink (of which I do not think we have any left in town), same with bowling (not many alleys left either) and ballroom dancing. I did ballroom for quite a while in my 40s but when my back started to bother me and I had an early start time for work I abandoned that too. Now I just go to the YMCA to work out in the pool. And of course work around the house, digging, carrying, climbing up and down ladders and such. I am going to take out two rose bushes in one of the back yard planters so when January comes around I can get a Braeburn apple tree and plant it.
Today, officially, I will never have to do jury duty again.
Does that mean it’s your BIRTHDAY, ML? If, so, I hope it was wonderful! I wish you lived nearby so I could give you some of my Braeburns to celebrate.
Yes. It was kinda disappointing. I went to one of my favorite restaurants and had a Filet Mignon/shrimp scampi combo. I won’t go into details but the dinner was $50 and disappointing, and with a drink, dessert and tip, almost $80. And no birthday anything. At least last night Kaiserhof offered me a free cheesecake for my birthday and every one of the staff wished me a happy birthday whenever they went by. At Anthony’s I was wearing a rhinestone tiara with a big 70 on it and a sash that read “Limited Edition 1954” and no one but two of the tables near me wished me a happy birthday.
A restaurant should notice when the patrons arrive smiling and when they leave, they’re not.
Happy Birthday, ML!!
That is strange that someone obviously having a milestone birthday wouldn’t have it acknowledged at a nice restaurant. They usually strive to make their customers happy.
But your Chet family wishes you the best day!!
Thank you.