I knew nothing of its tragic effects until I got that phone call, THAT call. It was a crisp February morning:
"Hello?"
"Hi Mrs. Abby. It's the elementary school. Your son Chaco was hurt in P.E. this morning. He's in with the school nurse..."
I raced to the school (after I finished my coffee and combed my hair a little bit and stuff...)
Sure enough, there was Chaco, holding his right arm, the nurse at his side saying, "Yeah, he should probably get that checked".
As we were leaving, the P.E. teacher, Mr. Steve, appeared, all anxious.
"How's he doing?! I don't know what happened! This has never happened before! *No one's ever broken a bone in my class!"
I glared at him with a mother's scorn. By then, I'd heard what had happened. Those sweet little 5th graders were hauled down to the gym from the comfort of their warm, loving classroom and thrown upon a brutal battlefield. No tolerance for the meek, and no security for the aggressive.
Pillow Polo. It was freaking pillow polo.
Bloody carnage waiting to happen. Look away.
Is it any wonder Chaco broke his wrist?! Especially considering that just a couple of days prior, he "fell up" the back yard stairs and noted lasting tenderness in his wrist, which probably warranted my writing a note to excuse him from P.E.??
But then if I'd done that, Chaco wouldn't have gotten that cool cast, and Mr. Steve couldn't have anxiously and temporarily taken credit for it.
*I've since learned that that was not true, but Mr. Steve didn't know me that well yet then, and was probably worried I would sue and drag him though the mud*
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Linking up with Mama Kat again this week for the prompt:
5. Throwback Thursday: Choose a photo from a previous February and write a poem or a blog post.
14 comments:
Gee, we didn't have fun stuff like pillow polo when I was in school. All we had were calisthenics and running, maybe some basketball. On the other hand, no one got their arm broken.
Just as scary as dodge ball with those horrible red play ground balls I hated that little game all my offspring thought it was wonderful LOL. My son got a broken arm at school too. Some kid jumped on it *Shaking My Head* Kids...
Pillow Polo?! That sounds like the safest sport ever! Those phone calls are scary though. I had one when my son broke his wrist at a friends house, rollerblading, when he was about 10.
As a kid, I always felt like P.E. was a cleverly disguised name for torture and only the athletically blessed every got any attention anyway. I broke my collar in P.E. doing a horrible gymnastic sort of thing called a "Dive Roll." I kneecap smacked my collarbone in the process. The only benefit was I got out gym for 6 weeks.
I'd never heard of pillow polo. I think we had "floor hockey" - same thing, but not as soft?
It's probably a low percentage of people who make it through childhood without breaking something.
Oh, we had a rollerblading break too - ankle. Different kid :)
Migosh, that's collar break sounds awful! As does "Dive Roll".
I've never heard of Pillow Polo, but the name alone has sent shivers up my spine. It sounds like the name of a horror movie.
Oooh, that would make for a great horror movie! I can just see it. "Children of the Pillow Polo"...
I had to giggle when you wrote that you finished your coffee and stuff before heading to the school. Priorities! You gotta save yourself before you can save others....
So did Chaco like his cast?
Well, I didn't exactly rush to the school since (a) he'd already hurt his wrist, and I thought this was just a minor mishap and (b) it's about 200 yards from our back door to the school office - we checked it once on the GPS :)
He did like the cast and actually got a twofer! After the green one for a few weeks, he downsized to just a forearm cast. Deal!
One for the Pillow Polo memory book. Did he ever play the sport again?
In the pic, notice how the girls are looking up for the photo-op.
Some girls start young I guess.
And come to think of it, that was Chaco's last game of Pillow Polo.
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