"Good shot, bad luck, and hell
are the five basic words to be used in a game of tennis,
though these, of course, can be slightly amplified."
~Virginia Graham
"But that won't give me a free hand to hold the beer."
~Billy Carter, while being taught a two-handed backhand shot.
One of my early ideas when I created my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77 was to repeat some of the activities I had enjoyed in the past but hadn't done for a long time. Tennis is one of those activities. I played a lot of tennis from the time I was a youngster, all the way to the end of my career in 1997. However, for various reasons I haven't played in the last twenty years. In early March I called Al and asked if we could play a set of tennis. I also asked if he would let me win. He agreed that we could play, but not that he would let me win. Darn! So on March 29th I drove to his home in Woodland Hills and we went to the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center where Al plays tennis regularly (I had to mention that he plays regularly) and hit the court.
The first photo below shows us leaving Al's to head for the court. You might notice, as Bonnie was kind enough to mention when I left home, that tennis shorts that haven't been worn for twenty years sometimes turn yellowish. What she didn't know, and I found out later, is that the elastic in the waist band of such old shorts tends to lose it's stretch memory. I probably should have worn suspenders. The next photos show our arrival and check-in at the Center.
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I guess we should have a video to show our excellent moves on the court, but the still photos below show about as much movement as the video would show anyway. Al is demonstrating his vicious two-handed backhand and I'm demonstrating my traditional forehand. In both cases we hit the ball so quickly that the photographer didn't get the balls in the photos.
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So it's a good thing I didn't bet any money on this one-set match because I played some pretty weak games. As the photo below shows, the final score was 6 games to 3 games.
This is the way I remember most of the games:
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Ron Serving: Double Fault. -- Love/15
Ron Serving: Second serve weak, but stays in the court. Al returns, Ron
hits it long. -- Love/30
Ron Serving: Double Fault. -- Love/40
Ron Serving: Second serve weak, but stays in the court. Al returns, Ron
hits it into the net. -- Game
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At the end of the match Al suggested we visit a favorite place of his called Sagebrush Cantina. It was nearby and we went there to rest up from the vigorous tennis activity just completed and have lunch and a beer. It was a fun place with good service and good food.
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Conclusion: In all seriousness, this was a really fun activity for me and I hope Al enjoyed it as much as I did. I really should get back in to playing tennis -- it's a fun game and good exercise. I would probably need to stop doing some of the other things I enjoy in order to do it, so I'm not sure it makes sense for me.
I've read that pickleball is one of the fastest-growing racket sports among older adults. It's a hybrid sport that blends Tennis and Ping Pong, two games that I have played in prior years. Maybe I should get into playing pickleball.
A Little History of my Tennis: I bought a tennis racket and a booklet on how to play tennis at Al's Bike in Logan when I was about twelve years old and began playing the game with Michael P, one of my neighbors. I won several city tournaments in the "Boys Division" during my junior high years. Through high school and college I played very little tennis, but when I moved to California I began playing again. We accumulated a group of guys that loved to play and for many years we met at various tennis courts on Sunday morning and played 3 or 4 hours of tennis; singles first, then doubles as other people arrived and wanted the courts. During these years Mel created the famous Fonnesbeck Open Tennis Tournament and I, along with all our friends that were tennis players, played in this tournament for many years. I also played in many company and industry management conferences for many years. While working in Germany in 1995 and 1996 I played regularly with one of the company employees that belonged to a tennis club in Koblenz.
Photos left to right: 1st row- Logan City Tournament champs in the early '50s, front row with me, Gordon Geddes and Quentin Cook; next is me when I was playing a lot of tennis.
2nd row- Me with a tournament trophy (for the life of me I can't remember the tournament where I got that big trophy); next a group of friends at one of the Fonnesbeck Open tournaments.
3rd row- Walt entertaining at our home after an all day Fonnesbeck Open tennis tournament; and finally, Bonnie at the 1985 Fonnesbeck Open when she was honored as The Queen. See Resolution below photos.
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Resolution of Bonnie as the official "Tournament Queen" of the Fonnesbeck Open, certified by Mel, seconded and attested by John McEnroe and James Connors, respectively.
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Note: The 1985 tournament was on Bonnie's 44th birthday. Mel certified her age as 39 --- was this an indication of his accounting prowess or his sense of humor?