When I was about 10 years old we had a catholic church close to us located on Third street with an entrance also on second street. That's me behind the boy with the bow & arrow in the yard of St. Philomena Church. The church had a youth program in the basement of the church. There were lots of physical things to do there. There was an exercise machine attached to one wall that had weights which were attached to ropes and then over pullys to grips that looked like saddle stirrups. You stood in front of it and pulled on the ropes which raised the weights up and down. I suppose this was one of the first exercise machines in use. They also had a rowing machine and pommel horses as well as rings suspended from the ceiling. All of these were fun to fool around with. In the very center of the room stood a regulation boxing ring. I never went near it as I was very timid at the time and I would never dream of getting into a fight or hitting anyone. There came a day though when a kid who looked like he was one of the Bowery Boys from New York approached me and asked "Hey! kid, wanna go a few rounds with me? Of course I said no and began to walk away from him. He persisted. "Aw come on" he said, "We'll just spar around and I promise not to hurt you" (He was bigger than I was) I kept saying no and he kept saying "Come on, you will have fun. " At some point I agreed to get in the ring with him and they tied some boxing gloves to my hands. Someone rang a bell and we met at the center of the ring and shook hands. Then he began hitting me with the ferosity of a mixmaster. This is not what I had in mind. This was not fun at all. I survived that first round by ducking a lot and running around the ring with him in hot pursuit. The bell finally rang and when I went to the corner the guy who was in the corner agreed that I was not a boxer and never would be. He stopped the slaughter, you couldn't call it a fight or a boxing match either because clearly it was neither. I don't remember ever going back to the St. Philomena basement.Sunday, August 20, 2006
World Champion Boxer?
When I was about 10 years old we had a catholic church close to us located on Third street with an entrance also on second street. That's me behind the boy with the bow & arrow in the yard of St. Philomena Church. The church had a youth program in the basement of the church. There were lots of physical things to do there. There was an exercise machine attached to one wall that had weights which were attached to ropes and then over pullys to grips that looked like saddle stirrups. You stood in front of it and pulled on the ropes which raised the weights up and down. I suppose this was one of the first exercise machines in use. They also had a rowing machine and pommel horses as well as rings suspended from the ceiling. All of these were fun to fool around with. In the very center of the room stood a regulation boxing ring. I never went near it as I was very timid at the time and I would never dream of getting into a fight or hitting anyone. There came a day though when a kid who looked like he was one of the Bowery Boys from New York approached me and asked "Hey! kid, wanna go a few rounds with me? Of course I said no and began to walk away from him. He persisted. "Aw come on" he said, "We'll just spar around and I promise not to hurt you" (He was bigger than I was) I kept saying no and he kept saying "Come on, you will have fun. " At some point I agreed to get in the ring with him and they tied some boxing gloves to my hands. Someone rang a bell and we met at the center of the ring and shook hands. Then he began hitting me with the ferosity of a mixmaster. This is not what I had in mind. This was not fun at all. I survived that first round by ducking a lot and running around the ring with him in hot pursuit. The bell finally rang and when I went to the corner the guy who was in the corner agreed that I was not a boxer and never would be. He stopped the slaughter, you couldn't call it a fight or a boxing match either because clearly it was neither. I don't remember ever going back to the St. Philomena basement.
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1 comment:
Well, I asked if you'd been writing in my absence and you said you didn't remember! Well, you certainly have been. Photos and all! Interesting story about the boxing and weight machine. Now, I have to get to the other stories.
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