The Pigskin of Youth
22 June 2007 Filed in: History | Lie-ographies
Ah, college! The rinky-tink of the
ukuleles, the clitter-clatter of the nickelodeons, the piercing
shrieks of the soon-to-be raccoon coats.
They were magical times, and I mean that almost literally,
considering how we were able to pass incorporeally through walls,
navigate the earth ectoplasmically, and communicate entirely via
thought transmission.
Of course, in today's world, what with "affirmative" action, things we once took for granted are, alas, no more.
Of all my college memories, none stands out more than the excitement of football!
Many think of football of that long-ago time as a "pigskin," and picture something, not unlike a pig, but inflated with air, being passed and punted around the field.
But, mind you, the game is called "football"! The item was not so much a pigskin, but an inflated human foot. Usually, a friend in "med" would be able to easily provide us with the necessary appendage, but in a bind, any freshman could be bribed (or forced!) to accommodate us with one of his own.
Although these freshmen were then unusable for playing football, we did have the number one hopscotch team in the state.
But more than studies, more than sport, it was the girls and their ha-cha-cha that made college special.
I had a girl named Hannah and little F-Model Scour-About that was made by the little-known Henderson Motor Company of Dort-Munder, Mich. She sucked down gas like you wouldn't believe, and coughed up tons of black exhaust, but she was my Hannah, and I'll never forget her.
There was a whole world of delights that this generation will never know: the wind-up phonograph; the wind-up telephone; and, perhaps most useful, the electrical winder.
Still I look back on those days, the mad chanting of an excited mob, their torches and pitchforks waving, the clatter of iron-rimmed wheels of a tumbrel on the cobblestone, the the almost silent swish of the guillotine--it is these, the simple pleasures that mean so much, and yet, which seem so very forgotten.
Of course, in today's world, what with "affirmative" action, things we once took for granted are, alas, no more.
Of all my college memories, none stands out more than the excitement of football!
Many think of football of that long-ago time as a "pigskin," and picture something, not unlike a pig, but inflated with air, being passed and punted around the field.
But, mind you, the game is called "football"! The item was not so much a pigskin, but an inflated human foot. Usually, a friend in "med" would be able to easily provide us with the necessary appendage, but in a bind, any freshman could be bribed (or forced!) to accommodate us with one of his own.
Although these freshmen were then unusable for playing football, we did have the number one hopscotch team in the state.
But more than studies, more than sport, it was the girls and their ha-cha-cha that made college special.
I had a girl named Hannah and little F-Model Scour-About that was made by the little-known Henderson Motor Company of Dort-Munder, Mich. She sucked down gas like you wouldn't believe, and coughed up tons of black exhaust, but she was my Hannah, and I'll never forget her.
There was a whole world of delights that this generation will never know: the wind-up phonograph; the wind-up telephone; and, perhaps most useful, the electrical winder.
Still I look back on those days, the mad chanting of an excited mob, their torches and pitchforks waving, the clatter of iron-rimmed wheels of a tumbrel on the cobblestone, the the almost silent swish of the guillotine--it is these, the simple pleasures that mean so much, and yet, which seem so very forgotten.