Country Chatter

I was barely in the door yesterday when Ryan wanted to know if I wanted to shoot basketball. Now I haven’t played basketball for years upon years upon years. It gave me flashbacks of Junior-High PE at John C. Myers School in Broadway!  My knee was hurting like crazy but I bravely said, “sure”.  His next comment was, “Do you wanta play horse, pigs, grandma or….”.  Now I realize we were not just shooting baskets, we are playing a game and knowing Ryan, he will be very competitive!  I chose pigs-I decided it was the safest as it was the shortest.  Maybe I could make it through. My strategy was to get this game over quick and then I could go act like a grandma with a swollen knee.

When we got to the concrete pad outside the garage door I was given detailed instructions on how to dribble, do layups and shoot. I told him I used to love to play basketball and I was pretty good but it had been a long time since I had played.

His first instructions were to practice shoot a few balls and I could choose my ball. We both bounced our ball and randomly shot numerous balls “towards” the hoop. All missed.  He decided to lower the basket so I could do better! He showed me how to aim for the top of the square painted on the backboard and it would go in. His didn’t.

All of a sudden I hit my groove and we decided to start playing. It did not matter if I shot from the left or right, straight up or a layup of sorts, I was sinking the ball and he was missing more than he got.  I smiled to myself when he decided he needed to raise the basket!  We had fun and he was a good sport even though I skunked him at “p-i-g-s”.   As we put the balls away he said, “Grandma, you are better than I thought!”  I felt a twinge of guilt for beating him so bad but it did feel good at the ripe old age of 63 to still be able to sink the ball in the hoop.