Hit Me! (Or, Great Memories, Part Two)
I had thought with these posts that they might go in chronological order, but I dispensed with that when I was watching ESPN this evening--I was watching something about a poker tournament, and that got me thinking about playing cards, etc. and it brought back a great memory.
When I was a kid, one of the greatest things about going to public schools was the opportunity to go on field trips. You couldn't get your permission slip signed fast enough! You found out what day you were going and counted down the days because you knew it would mean a) no schoolwork for that day and b) a chance to get outside the school building. Yeah, you'd learn something too, but who thinks about that?
The story on the game of poker reminded me of a particular field trip that I took when I was in 4th grade. There was an air show that was being held at the Bluegrass Regional Airport (that was then, this is now), and they had planes from World War I and World War II, as well as other types of commercial airplanes. In addition, there were Air Force and Navy airmen, both veteran and current, that were there to answer questions about the planes. I thought planes were the coolest thing--I had a poster of the Blue Angels on my wall, along with posters of F-14 Tomcat planes.
They had a lot of events going on, and for some reason, there were airmen playing cards with passers-by and giving out prizes, one of them being a set of playing cards. The game my friends and I played with an Air Force lieutenant was Blackjack. I can't remember how many times I played, but I remember that I did win at least once and came away with a pack of playing cards that had different airplanes on each card with facts about each plane (yeah, Blackjack is mostly luck and knowing when to press yours, but winning is winning, to a kid).
It was the coolest thing in the world to win a prize, but to win against a grown-up? THAT was priceless, and I got to tell that story to my friends for a while ("Remember the time I beat that Air Force guy at Blackjack? Here's the deck to prove it"). I think if I looked around long enough at my parents' house, I might find that pack of cards.
But really, the great thing was not the cards: it was having a field trip in prime of Spring, being freed from the confining walls of a school building to go look at cool planes (what boy doesn't like planes?) and beat an adult at Blackjack.
What a day indeed.
When I was a kid, one of the greatest things about going to public schools was the opportunity to go on field trips. You couldn't get your permission slip signed fast enough! You found out what day you were going and counted down the days because you knew it would mean a) no schoolwork for that day and b) a chance to get outside the school building. Yeah, you'd learn something too, but who thinks about that?
The story on the game of poker reminded me of a particular field trip that I took when I was in 4th grade. There was an air show that was being held at the Bluegrass Regional Airport (that was then, this is now), and they had planes from World War I and World War II, as well as other types of commercial airplanes. In addition, there were Air Force and Navy airmen, both veteran and current, that were there to answer questions about the planes. I thought planes were the coolest thing--I had a poster of the Blue Angels on my wall, along with posters of F-14 Tomcat planes.
They had a lot of events going on, and for some reason, there were airmen playing cards with passers-by and giving out prizes, one of them being a set of playing cards. The game my friends and I played with an Air Force lieutenant was Blackjack. I can't remember how many times I played, but I remember that I did win at least once and came away with a pack of playing cards that had different airplanes on each card with facts about each plane (yeah, Blackjack is mostly luck and knowing when to press yours, but winning is winning, to a kid).
It was the coolest thing in the world to win a prize, but to win against a grown-up? THAT was priceless, and I got to tell that story to my friends for a while ("Remember the time I beat that Air Force guy at Blackjack? Here's the deck to prove it"). I think if I looked around long enough at my parents' house, I might find that pack of cards.
But really, the great thing was not the cards: it was having a field trip in prime of Spring, being freed from the confining walls of a school building to go look at cool planes (what boy doesn't like planes?) and beat an adult at Blackjack.
What a day indeed.
posted by Dan B. @ 9:36 PM
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