Monday, 19 April 2010
Tomboy Hero
By Walt Grant
(Caroline Ramberg’s Call me Coach inspired me to contribute this baseball story.)
Back in the 1930s, I attended a small rural school – so small that each teacher taught two grades in one of the four classrooms. And so small that it required all nine boys in the 7th and 8th grade classroom to field a baseball team.
A day came when one of the boys was suspended and we had a big game scheduled with a similar team in the neighboring town of Braintree, a larger community with lots more boys to choose from. They were the powerhouse of our league. As I said, this was in the 1930’s – before feminism had been invented.
We invented it, however, and appointed Marion Chaplic, a certified tomboy, to become a member of the team, and off we all went to Braintree.
Being the visiting team, we were the first up at bat, of course. And Marion was our lead-off hitter.
When she went up to the plate, the Braintree boys all called foul. We explained the situation to them but they still objected to Marion.
We had no good option other than leave her in the lineup. The Braintree guys all walked off the field in protest.
The game was officially scored as a win (by default) for us and we rode back home with our new hero, Marion Chaplic, who had won the game single-handedly.
[INVITATION: All elders, 50 and older, are welcome to submit stories for this blog. They can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, etc. Instructions for submitting are here.]
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
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I had wondered who invented feminism and now I know. It was you and Marion Chaplic. I loved your story. Thanks for sharing it.
Posted by: Marcia Mayo | Monday, 19 April 2010 at 03:58 AM
Thank goodness we've progressed since the days when girls who excelled at athletics were labeled and banned from playing! My granddaughters are aghast when I tell stories like that -- and having to wear dresses to school (even through college), socks with shoes. And heaven forbid, no bare legs!
Posted by: Mickey | Monday, 19 April 2010 at 07:29 AM
It's a good thing I wasn't the girl elected to fill in. I always struck out.
Good for Marion; a score for our side. ;-)
Posted by: Darlene | Monday, 19 April 2010 at 07:48 AM
Cheers for our pioneers.
Posted by: Mary B Summerlin | Sunday, 25 April 2010 at 10:11 AM