Let the games begin
They
didn’thaveaparkpermit, gawd,thecitywouldhave charged$150forauserfee.
There was no real plan except to have fun, but the first Geriatrics Games, held at Nicholls Oval on a beautiful sun soaked day where the “athletes” sought shade, were a great success.
Some background. Every morning some members of the former YMCA men’s health club (now Club Plus or something like that) share the facilities before and after working out. They tell stories, joke about things that they probably couldn’t or wouldn’t at home. They range in age from the late 50s to whatever people will share and are in physical condition from super shape like Ed Dillon to well, couch potato like most of us. They have several things in common: they are men, okay boys, who have all retired from their full-time careers ranging from teachers, truckers, to businessmen and industrial workers (once called factory workers) and love sports.
Dillon, one of the youngest of the crew, thought it would be a good idea to get the boys together at Nicholls Oval for a fun gathering after the Y morning with some rather non-athletic, athletic events. He mentioned it to Don Barrie and Ron Crossman, and within a week they had a couple dozen people willing to have some fun and a barbecue.
Ed did most of the work putting the games together, bringing a barbecue, hockey net, and various pieces of equipment for some light games involving bocce (for the Italian members), golf, hockey and Barrie’s trivia quiz.
For three hours on Thursday morning, after many had broken curfew Wednesday night to watch the Stanley Cup finals, the guys socialized, laughed and ate, including a cake for CPP’s newest member Jim Hayes who turned 60, as some of the competitors already had some decades ago.
The games involved shooting pucks at nets, putting golf balls, pushups, balancing on one leg, lacrosse catches, rugby kicks, Frisbee tosses, tossing balls in buckets and chipping wiffle golf balls.
Ed created the rules, the games and the day. Ron was the referee and Don did as he usually does — very little (just kidding, he helped organize the various games).
Few, okay none, asked the score, some filed protests with Referee Ron who paid no attention and others couldn’t compete because of bad legs, shoulders or they had missed their morning naps.
None of them missed the refreshments, hamburg and hot dog lunch that Ed and Shawn Heffernan prepared on their barbecues, although some of them should have, but it is difficult to teach old dogs new tricks.
Many, okay two, asked where CHEX, TSN and The Examiner were for this important event. Frank Daly pedalled his bike to the park because he didn’t think there would be a parking spot because of the huge crowd. Maybe four fans showed for the free admission event, two more than were expected to watch in the shadows of the new, but still unfinished rugby clubhouse on one side of the park and the children’s splash pad that is coming along quite well.
There were plenty of individual insults, jock humour, some unshareable in this column, others unworthy.
Don’s trivia quiz at the end of the athletic part of the gruelling geriatric Olympics included such questions as: What are the three consecutive strikes in bowling called? (Turkey); Before Mount Everest was discovered as the highest mountain in the world, which mountain was the highest? (As Don told them “Mount Everest, you idiots!”); What is unique about this sentence: “A quick brown box jumps over a lazy dog?” (It includes every letter of the alphabet) and How much time in years does the average adult spend on the toilet in his lifetime? (Three). Who is the world counted that?
It is obvious Mr. Barrie has little to do with his time.
If you left these Games with a complaint or without having some fun, you’d have to be from another planet or Mayor Rob Ford’s public relations committee.
The winners were: Dale Trafford, Pete Deck, Mike Warren, Pat Garvey, Paul Jobe, Tony Carravagio, Peter Russo, Nick Titus, Joe Marino, Steve Downer, Mike Hickey, Wink Heffernan, Bob Hoar, Frank Daly, Shawn Heffernan, Jim Hayes, Frank Malloy, Doug Kirk, Gary McInroy, Gary Baldwin, Jeff Crowe and Pete Procyk.
We all won thanks to an Ed Dillon idea along with his willingness to walk the mile to make it happen, and fellow organizers Don Barrie and Ron “One Punch Crunch” Crossman.
They are already thinking about expanding next year’s games... to include carts to get us around in, and some crowd control because this has possibility written all over it, okay, probability. But don’t tell anyone or they’ll be demanding insurance, permits, and doctor notes.
NOTES: The announced winner was Tony Carravagio’s team, which was presented with the Tony Carravagio trophy…. Memories: Many of us couldn’t remember Turner Park at Chamberlain and High streets without the clubhouse, but it, and the wading pool, have recently been torn down. Organizers could move the Geriatrics Games there next year but need the shade of trees and picnic tables for rest areas. Besides, next year the splash pad will be at Nicholls Oval for our showers.