Monday, March 31, 2014

Let's Get Into Physical (Part 2): Tennis Everyone?

"Grandpa, what kind of computer games did you have when you were a kid?"

"Well we had Pong and then later Space Invaders, and then Galaga, which was like way cool at the time."

"That's it!  Man, you guys must have been really bored.  I mean what else did you do?"

"Son, this may sound impossible to you, but we actually went outside to play games.  And, yes, we had fun."

"Huh?  What kind of games can you play outside?"

"Well back in the 70s, the tennis craze was all the rage.  Hard to believe, but it was considered a major sport - right up there with football, baseball and hockey."

"What?  hockey was considered a major sport?"


"Okay, smart guy.  I remember EVERYONE took up tennis then.  And, believe you me, it was a great place to see all the lovely ladies!"

"Well grandpa, I play tennis"

"Son, Wii tennis doesn't count."

"Yep, not only was tennis great fun and great for socializing, it was great exercise too."  You just never knew who would show up at the courts!"  "Son, stop fiddling with that dadbern iPhone and pay attention!"

"Another great thing about tennis is that it was a great date choice.  You got to take the girl to a classy place, have some laughs while you play, and then grab a bite to afterwards.  You can't do that playing video games!" (1)

"Hello?, son?"

"Huh?"

"Have you heard ANYTHING I've been saying?  Put away that infernal contraption and you might learn a thing or two about how to set up a great date for a girl."

"Grandpa, what do you mean by a 'date'?  Is that like a hook-up?"

Sigh.   "No, no, no.  It's like...oh never mind, you're generation is hopeless.  Son? son?" **sound of texting**  "Oh great, seems to me that the only exercise you kids get now days is texting on your phones!"  "No wonder all the tennis courts are all empty........"


footnotes:

(1) This pic courtesy of Blue Senshi!

8 comments:

  1. mapster:
    You are dead right about the "great date choice." When I was in college in the early '70s, I had tennis "dates" with several young ladies on a regular basis. Even though they all had steady boyfriends, none of those would play tennis with them. The ladies considered it exercise--not a "date" per se. I didn't care--I got to spend an hour or two watching gorgeous women run around in their tennis outfits! (P.S. I did eventually have real dates with a couple of them because of tennis.)

    Lars

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    1. Yeah, I'm with ya! The tennis "date" is really low key so everyone's more relaxed. The key is to not take it too serious and focus on showing her your fun, good-natured side. And if she's really good at tennis (which happend to me once) then, by all means, be gracious about it!

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  2. Ha, Ha! My friend used to remind me that when a guy asked me to play tennis I was supposed to let them win not play like my life depended on it. Those were the days, though I never owned a tennis dress and can't imagine how hot a double knit polyester one would be!

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    1. Once a played a gal who was really good (ranked in the state for juniors). I did "win" one set. Afterwards I asked her if she let me we win that one, in a lighthearted manner naturally. She never really gave me a straight answer. Somehow my male ego survived and we had a great time!

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  3. I think that's Shelley Hack in the 2nd image - Dave in NV

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    1. Yes, you are correct! I should have written under that pic "You just never knew who would show up at the courts - sometimes even a Charlie's Angel"

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  4. photo 1 shows Karen growing gigantically and Kathy getting Lilliputtian))

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    1. Yeah, that is a little weird. They may not have been photographed together. This might be a Photoshop effect.

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