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“Those bees?”
“Yeah. Those are our tennis balls. Those and wasps and yellow jackets or anything else with wings that’s zippin’ around out here. In country tennis you get points for knocking down stuff that flies.”
“You mean you want me to stand here and swing this racket at wasps or bees?”
“Yep.”
“Isn’t there a chance I could be stung if I swing at one of them and miss?”
“Yeah, but anything worthwhile has some risk involved in it. Now, are you gonna play country tennis or do I need to buy you some pink drawers?”
That was all it took. I grabbed
racket and broke down into a Kung-Fu like stance. A few bees buzzed by, and I swung at ‘em but came up empty. Finally, a big, quarter-sized bee flew directly at me. I eyed it, raised my racket, and BAMMM! A direct hit - ole’ Billy hit ground, and I was sure I’d scored some major points!
That hope lasted for only a few seconds. Ed Jr. glanced at bee, then at me, and said,
“One point.”
I thought he was kidding, so I asked,
“One point?”
“Yep, just one. Son, that bee was huge. You have to earn points, what you just did would be like someone using a baseball bat to hit a basketball. Anybody can do that. Give me racket and I‘ll show you how it‘s done.”
I handed it over to him. The old man took it, got really still, and held it maybe waist high. No more than a minute passed when a medium sized bee flew right into his line of vision. Ed Jr. tensed up, flicked his wrist, and...
POPPP!!! The bee dropped like it‘d been shot. I looked at it for a second, then looked over at Ed Jr, who promptly announced,
“Game, set, and match.”
And there you have it. My first country tennis match, a 2-1 loss to Ed Jr. Will and I left right after that, cause it was getting late and he still had some homework left to do. On our way back, Will looked over at me and said,
“Guess you learn something new every day, huh dad?”
That might be an understatement....
Ed’s latest book, “Rough As A Cob,“ can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.
