Man Child Part 2

My second introduction to the orange dirt of the Bell Elementary playground was also caused by the might of the man child. 

For a while Ms. Bee put a moratorium on football during recess, because we kept playing tackle instead of touch.  Climbing on the monkey bars was outlawed by school administration because some kid almost broke his neck.  This left us with outdoor activities like relay races, running around the perimeter of the playground and really lame games like Red Rover.  Now... one would not think that Red Rover is a dangerous game... except for the involvement of a hairy beast known as the man child.

So here I am... the slow, fat, little kid... kind of going through the motions of recess, playing a dumb game like Red Rover, standing arm in arm with the other kids.  Listening to the chant allowing one kid from each side to run across to the other side.  It never dawned on me that you had to break through the arms of the other kids.  I figured we were just running back and forth from one side to the other.

Then is happened... "Red Rover, Red Rover, let Galen come over..."  Hey... that's me.  So I took off... running my fastest toward the other side.  It wasn't that far... probably 30 or 40 feet.  But with my head down I was determined to get to the other side faster than any of the other kids.  The biggest problem was... I didn't pick the best place to try to enter the other side.  I picked the side between the man child and another big kid in first grade, Alan Templeton.  About the time I hit their arms they had made a pact that nobody would get through. 

My chin connected with their arms and my view of the world went from orange dirt to blue skies.  I'm not sure my body had been that parallel to the ground in my short time here on earth.  Once again the orange playground dirt fanned out from under my thudding body.  As I blinked my eyes I could see two birds circling way up high in the sky... probably buzzards waiting to see if I would breath again.  "Hey Fat's... you gotta go back to the other side... you didn't get through."  The man child informed me.

As I dusted myself off... I wondered how Red Rover could be such a dangerous game.

Nobody else tried to break through the line on either side of the man child.  I was glad the other kids were learning from my experiences... I guess.

Next... the man child and kick ball...