© irene waters 2014
Sports days were fun events in primary school. In addition to the normal running events there were also races such as the egg and spoon race, the sack race and the three-legged race. Races that even the non-athletic child wanted to enter. In those days I entered everything even though I was far from athletic and I occasionally took out prizes. Whether that was because of my talent or a policy that every child went home with a prize I don’t know and I don’t care. We looked forward to those days unlike my years in high school where the competition was high and I wasn’t in the race from the beginning. Had my asthma been diagnosed earlier this may have been different. Two of my friends entered all events whilst I entered the walking race and the javelin throwing, that was, if I couldn’t get my parents to write a permission to be absent slip.
© irene waters 2014
© irene waters 2014
http://sharingthestoryblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/bite-size-memoir-no-4-sports-day/
About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
My memories of sports day involved doing well at the wheelbarrow race, I was no good at straight forward running (like you I had undiagnosed asthma and couldn’t run far without being breathless).
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Those races were good because they took co-ordination. I still look at people running and wonder how on earth they do it. It’s a totally foreign activity to me. The asthma was a pain wasn’t it.
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I had forgotten about the girls with asthma – I think we all rather ignorantly, took them to be skivers. We didn’t say anything but I guess they might have felt that undertone of disapproval from everyone else, which would put you off even more! Love your photos as ever. Fascinated by how dry everything looks even though it’s cool enough for you to need a blanket on your legs!
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I can’t remember whether that year whether we were officially in drought but winter is normally our driest season and we always did athletics in the winter as it is too hot in summer and we did swimming then.
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I LOATHED everything to do with sports – except tennis. At which I was quite good, amazingly enough. [grin] But PT – nup. Hated and detested it. Just fat; no real excuse like asthma …
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You and me both M-R and I liked tennis also, as well as basketball and swimming. For PT (physical torture) I spent more time at the principals office for refusing to do what I was told to than I spent in class.
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Made me laugh ! 😀
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🙂
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Nice to hear from someone else that sports played a role in their growing up. So many kids today don’t play a sport. My parents’ philosophy was to have my brother and I participate in as many as possible to see what we liked..and we did. I liked them all, unfortunately, but settled on tennis, competitive swimming, field hockey, and basketball. One for each season. My Dad was an ultra-competitive tennis player (Wimbledon twice) and my brother didn’t like sports much; I got the genes!
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Although I didn’t like athletic pursuits I did love my tennis, basketball and swimming. Now I dance. Your Dad was on the circuit – wow. He must have been a great coach for tennis. I played competition until we moved to Queensland two years ago and I decided not to find a club here as the bones are starting to creak, the feet are twisted and the heat oppressive.
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We were condemned to an hour of sport every day in high school, and gym once a week. We also had to try out for everthing before sports day, even hurdles and high jump. Sadism, it was.
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Totally agree with you Helen. For the non-athletically inclined child it was indeed torture. I wonder if they still do it?
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Probably not. The boarding school where I underwent these tortures now has heating in the dormitories – unheard of luxury, Armidale or not! They were very into mens sana in corpore sano, back then – probably scared of our adolescent hormones!
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Things have certainly changed. Armidale without heating would have been cold but it probably did keep you heatlhy.
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Oh I remember all those races Irene, loved them all. How wonderful that you have photos to share from your childhood from your sport’s days. I don’t have any. I love the first photo of you especially. Brings back many happy memories of a day I used to love at school…once upon a time! Although, just as with you, later on in high school the competition got much harder. Sorry that you had asthma, hope it didn’t cause you too many problems…
Hope you are having a great weekend… cheers my friend 🙂
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Yes those fun races were great and I am lucky to have the photos. A family of hoarders. The asthma probably was not so much of a problem as I implied (until my thirties) but more that I wasn’t athletically built until my thirties and I came from a family of readers not sportsman. No problems now except I still can’t run but I can dance most people off the floor.
Hope you too are having a good weekend. Monday has just commenced for us and I am way behind so I am working hard today (I hope). 🙂
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I love dancing too Irene, so we could do that as well as our walks, haha 🙂 Glad that the asthma wasn’t too much of a problem for you.
Enjoying the weekend thank you, just quickly catching up now as hubby is off and he is waiting me for to finish blogging…sound familiar??!! Hope you get a chance to catch up today my friend. It’s so easy to get behind isn’t it? I never seem to get ahead these days…
Thinking of you… ❤ 🙂
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Definitely familiar. ❤ 🙂
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I was never good a competitive sports. I always was one of the last in races, the long jump, skipping, kickball, baseball, you name it. Even though I was a devout bike rider, I never entered any competition. I can’t blame my lack if interest or skill on asthma though. I just didn’t have any talent that way.
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Yes I don’t think that we are all built for or necessarily have interest in sport. I come from a family on sports people and have even less interest in watching sport to doing it. Asthma for me is just an excuse though I do wonder whether if I hadn’t had it would things have been different. I don’t think so somehow.
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Pingback: Sports Report! | Lisa Reiter - Sharing the Story
Fun recollection and reading the discussions it brought about, too! I was horrible at sports but could sit a horse before I could walk. Guess I never thought of it as a sport!
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I enjoy the discussions as much as I do the writing of the piece. I so desperately wanted a horse when I was a kid. Like dancing (which is now classified as a sport) if you enjoy something it doesn’t seem like sport – just fun.
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