For some reason

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas came to mind recently. It made me think of the ‘keep your head’ line from Jefferson Starship’s White Rabbit. Hunter S. Thomson was one who seemed to keep his head when completely blitzed on drugs and alcohol. I only know this from Johnny Depp‘s portrayal of him in the movie though. I loved how he would see an iguana in his room and hesitate, stare, and wonder if it was real or not.

This all reminds me of the time Dan and I were at the miniature golf place off the 91 Freeway in Anaheim Hills. Here they had a contraption with two facing seats. It was like a hamster wheel of sorts, where the two facing people would shift weight to get the wheel rocking. By shifting weight cooperatively, the duo could get the wheel to spin completely around, sending both upside down each revolution. The shifting of the weight was very pronounced as gravity vs centripetal force competed. I started getting queasy. My queasiness grew with each revolution and I was about to ask to stop. But, then I thought about the fact that I never get motion sickness. I decided to embrace the forces and enjoy the ride. Immediately the queasiness was gone, and I really got into enjoying the ride… so much so, that we almost pulled the device out of the ground. The bolts in the concrete were beginning to come loose. We were going too fast. What a great time… these were the days we played High-Ball often.

High-Ball was a game on trampoline. The trampoline had mesh walls surrounding the pad with a dividing wall (or two for four players). The walls went up around 15 feet and there was a basket built into the wall on each players court. The game was played with a basketball size beanbag. The object of the game was to jump on the trampoline high enough to throw the beanbag over the dividing wall into the basket on the opponent’s court. It was a high energy game. The best courts were the ones where the players shared the same trampoline mat because, by timing your jump correctly, you could steal the energy from your opponent’s jump. I became quite good at doing just that to the point where I could actually jump over the dividing wall. When I played, I preferred to go barefoot and shirtless. I usually only had a pair of short pants on when I played. We usually had a crowd gather when we played because the games were so lively. Sadly, I lost all of my opponents to ankle strains and breaks. (My ankles are very strong.) Boy, I enjoyed those days. I think I would like to get on a trampoline again.

Racquetball was another sport where we could gather a crowd. John and I would play on a glass court and we had some wild games. We climbed impossibly high on the walls to get a shot. We body-slammed the glass wall often. We dove to return those low shots. We were pretty beat up by the end of our game, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Good times.