Choose your side

It is hard to imagine that any team that is playing today doesn’t have a uniform to wear. Not only that but all of the extra needed items like shin guards for soccer or sweat bands for basketball even if the kid doesn’t sweat.

Back in the 1960’s as fifth and sixth graders we played intermural basketball games during the noon hour with referees from the high school basketball team and we didn’t have uniforms to wear. We had our PE gear as in white t-shirts and red shorts and tennis shoes. Okay, one of the teams got to wear the t-shirts and the other team needed to take their shirts off for the game.

I can’t imagine that that attire would fly today as parents wouldn’t want the girl cheerleaders, yes we had cheerleaders, to see their skinny little kid or maybe not skinny at all get laughed at by some of the spectators mostly other 5th and 6th graders. But guess what, we survived and we couldn’t wait to play those games. We had fun. Not everyone was a basketball player as several future wrestlers played in these games as well.

Another interesting item to this story is the fact that we didn’t have a coach for each team. We had a team captain that organized their team. Mr. Armstrong oversaw the intermural program and made up the schedule and made sure we had referees for the games played in the little gym at the grade school. We had fun and I guess that was the main thing.

As I think back on this time I vividly remember that our uniforms were either shirts or skins as in no t-shirt just showing our bare chested skin. Since C-19 locked us down or some of us down in March we are nearing four months of going through this pandemic. At times it seems like it has been over a year.

We have heard so many things about what we should do or shouldn’t do that it is overly confusing. The governor at most of his press conferences has urged the citizens of Washington to wear a mask while he isn’t wearing a mask. One time he actually said he was utilizing his first amendment rights by not wearing one. Lately he has been wearing a mask at these press conferences because he is making it mandatory for the citizenry to wear masks whenever entering businesses across the state.

I know that there are people who have trouble breathing with these things on. I’m glad I’m retired because I can’t imagine working each day with one of these things clinging to my face. I would have to get rid of my facial hair because it really is irritable.

I have an idea. Why don’t we choose up sides? Instead of shirts and skins we could call it masked versus unmasked. We could keep score of those who get infected with C-19 and those that are virus free. At least we could have some fun with it because it doesn’t seem like a lot of folks are enjoying this very much at all.

Last week I was listening to a radio newsbreak that told a story about some students from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Roll Tide John, that actually had a Covid 19 party. The object of the party was to get infected. The party consisted of a person infected with C-19 and other non-infected partiers. The partiers had to put money in a pot and the whole object was to be the first one to test positive for Covid. During the night the partiers would mingle with the infected person. The first person testing positive was declared the winner and they won the money.

Some would say that these college students were pretty stupid but maybe they were thinking, “I’m young. The best way to continue my life is to not worry about getting infected again!”

We know that a lot of people have been infected and we know a fair amount of people have died, mostly vulnerable folks with underlying health issues. What about those athletes that tested positive a few months ago? Surely they’ve gotten over this virus by now. Why aren’t we hearing from them? Remember far more people have recovered from this virus than have died from it. And a lot of those people may have died with it rather than from it.

I still think we need to choose sides. I will be wearing a mask because I need a few items from the store but I would rather be on the skins side this time.

— Dale Anderson is a contributing sports columnist.