When I think back to childhood there really was no item I was especially attached to. I didn’t have a special stuffed animal or a small blanket I would drag around like Linus. At different times I had some favorite toys but I would outgrow them and move on. Most of my favorite items involved sports of some kind. I had a couple of different baseball mitts….I would lovingly rub oil on them to break them in and put them under my mattress with a baseball wedged in the center to develop a pocket. I would ride to a friends house my mitt dangling off the handlebars of my bike. I never liked other people using my mitt, they wouldn’t care for it the same as I would, and they’d just throw it on the ground and worse their sweaty hands would leave the inside feeling wet and clammy. I loved playing baseball with my friends, it was our favorite neighborhood game to play during the summers. But as we grew older the games became more infrequent as we started finding new hobbies and interest….for me my new passion became tennis.
I don’t remember where I got my first tennis racquet. I think it was from a garage sale, it was a wood racquet and I distinctly remember that it had a cover covering the head of it which was kinda unique as most of the wood racquets were still being put into a press when not in use. I’m dating myself I know by all these references to wood racquets and frame presses but back when I was a kid most of the racquets were wood….aluminum was just beginning to become popular but most casual and a lot of professionals still used wood. My dad played tennis and he would let me tag along with him to the courts as he hit with a friend. He’d give me an old ball or two and tell me to hit it against the backboard while he and his friend would play. After they were finished my dad would hit with me for awhile giving me some pointers about how to hold the racquet and how my swing should be.
Eventually I began taking lessons during the summers, not that my parents thought I had any prodigious talent but more to simply get me out of the house and away from the TV. My mom would drive me to the local courts while she ran errands…..there an instructor of some degree would teach a handful of us kids the basics and we’d run around hitting and chasing balls for the better part of an hour……and I soon began to love it……it became my thing.
There wasn’t much tennis on TV back then but if it was on I was watching it. I’d go to the library and check out books on tennis or read a tennis magazine. I absorbed as much of it as I could which back then was pretty limited. I soon began noticing what racquets the pros were using convinced that if I had the same racquet my game would improve or at least I’d beat my friends more consistently, and back then one of the premier racquets was the Wilson Jack Krammer Pro Staff.
I had a serious crush on this racquet even more so than any crush I would develop on a girl back then….yes I know I know….. but I told you I loved tennis. Anyhow my friends and I would hang out in the sporting goods store eyeing the racquets especially the Pro Staff. We’d look at it, talk about it in whispered tones almost afraid to touch it. Soon though we’d start to pass it around, remarking on it’s looks and feel……
“feel how lightweight it is, that’s unusual for a wood racquet”….one of us would remark
“look it’s endorsed by Jack Krammer for championship play”……another would exclaim….never mind that none of us had ever seen Krammer play as he played in the 50’s & 60’s and he probably didn’t play with this racquet.
“what do you think of this grip….I’d think I’d go with one size up”…..
“really ?….. I kinda like the feel of this”…..and on we’d go standing there talking racquets, grips and feel….what can I say we were tennis geeks. Eventually we’d tire of this talk and leave or perhaps we were asked to leave as it was obvious none of us were purchasing the racquet that day.
It was my parents, god bless them, who finally purchased the racquet for me for my birthday….although I had dropped enough hints it was only a slight surprise, and for a short time I was the envy of all my tennis playing friends. But racquets like a lot of things are a personal preference and soon one of my friends had a new oversize racquet and another got an aluminum racquet…..me I stuck with my wood Pro Staff for a long time, eventually I was one of the only people at the courts swinging a wood racquet.
Eventually I discovered other interests and even discovered girls and my buddies and I stopped playing. My wood racquet was shoved into the closet or ( the horror) the garage subjected to the cold. I kept it all these years as I realized it wasn’t some out of date relic from a bygone era but a unique item of my childhood. It’s been rescued from the garage and as I write this I’ve been cradling it across my lap and I’ve even jumped up a few times and taken some practice swings…..might have to hit the courts again this summer.
My old racquet brings back all those memories of times spent with friends doing something we loved. Tennis gave us something to do, something to discover during our awkward teenage years, a place to hang out and be ourselves, a place to have fun, compete and laugh with each other…….and I suppose that’s why I’ve kept this racquet all these years
Peace and Love,
John
John's Blog 