Sunday, November 14, 2010

Halloween, Terry, and Match Play

Halloween is tomorrow.  It’s nice that it’s on a Sunday this year.  I had my class’s Halloween party on Friday.  Next year, Halloween’s on a Monday, though.  I’m reading a funny book sent to me by my best friend Joe called 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done.  In it, he talks about how much he despises Halloween parties.  He claims he would, “… rather take three Christmas parties and four Easters any day for one Halloween.  Who ever thought that stuffing millions of children with candy, then sticking them in costumes and putting spears in their hands all on the same day was a good idea?” 
   No doubt they are pretty chaotic days, but they are also great fun.  Where else do children get to pretend to be someone else?  I was a “stormteacher,” using an authentic replica stormtrooper helmet that I also got from my best buddy Joe, and it was a big hit.  I would send the children out to recess saying, with my deepest loyal imperial soldier voice, “Move along.  Move along.”
   I hesitate to write about this next part, but I will...After I had met and played with Terry, I got his phone number to see if he would be interested in playing with us.  I feel bad for him, although I am sure he does not want my pity.  He moved here to retire, had a beautiful home built here in our neighborhood, and then his wife died of cancer.  Before we played, he had just returned from Wyoming from his mother’s funeral.  She had died a while ago, but she was cremated, so they waited until more family members could attend.   
   I was riding my scooter home, and I saw him going into his garage, so I stopped to ask him if he could play the next day.  He said he would be happy to play, so on a Saturday two weekends ago, we all met for eighteen holes.  We decided on best ball match play, one of my favorites.  Terry and I would take on Bruce and C.J. 
   We lost.  Tom asked us to start on the back because he had sent of some beginners out on the front.  Our match was not even really close.  On hole #10, C.J. got a par to the rest of our bogeys, so they were one up right away.  We stayed one down for the next three holes.  Hole #12 was worth noting.  We all missed the green.  We all chipped within six feet, and we all missed our putts for par.  We all got bogeys, and Bruce was the last to putt with the best chance for a par, but he missed, so they remained one up.
   On hole #14, Bruce earned a birdie with a long putt from about twenty-five feet, so we were two down.  Terry got his par, but Bruce’s birdie nixed it.  On the next hole, Bruce and I both tied with pars for us to remain two down, but on the very next hole, Bruce chipped in from off the green with a chip from about thirty feet ending our match right then and there 3 and 2. 
            

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