Bite size memoir is designed to help anyone record some personal memoir in small manageable bites. There’s a prompt every week and some constraints to keep it small (with full details at the bottom of this post). To catch up on how it started, please read here. If you have your own blog and want to participate, please feel free to incorporate links to and from your post to encourage readers to blog hop.
This week’s prompt is Sports Day.
I might be taking a risk jumping to something a little more concrete this week after the Magic and Fairy Tales of last week, but taking my cue from the school calendar and remembering how I could run but not jump and a whole host of other things that bubble up when I think of Sports Day. For many of us this will take us right back to our own childhood and for others, more memories of our own children or grandchildren. If we get really lucky we might hear from the odd groundsman or teacher out there with different tales to tell.
In the UK, Sports Day is a summer school event mostly around track and field events – if it means something different to you, please go with whatever the prompt brings you.
As usual I’ve tackled it twice to provide examples but please don’t let my perspective influence what you remember.
I remember Sports Day
I remember four of us carrying long wooden benches to the field we weren’t normally allowed to play in, to sit on while we waited for our turn.
I remember wearing a green sash for the house I was in.
I remember balancing beanbags on our heads, jumping in sacks and three-legged races on bumpy grass.
I remember wooden trestle tables covered in plastic cups of weak orange squash.
I remember watching my egg so it didn’t fall out of the spoon.
I remember Mrs H, stop watch in hand, laughing because I ran 100m hurdles even faster than 100m flat!
I remember being amazed I was rubbish at high jump.
Later, I remember winning the Mum’s beanbag race and being ridiculously proud! (for years..)
I remember a Dad cheating to win by holding his egg with his thumb – that was you Stephen if you’re reading! Detention and disqualification still pending..
I remember it took a while for it to dawn on me how competitive I am because that wasn’t allowed for a long time.
Sports Day – 150 Words Prose
800m and 1500m were my distances. I ‘trained’ well, running around the village going somewhere fast or getting away from someone even faster! Legs Eleven was a nickname for a while.
There was sports day excited chatter on warm summer days. It never rained in those summers. The oval track on a field of grass, looked so inviting, trimmed short of its sunny daisies, with brilliant white painted lines. I still hear the wind in the trees and smell the grass on the breeze.
I hear the starters gun! And round I go, in front again with everything pounding. Exhilarated but hurting and tightening when all of this fades to black and I’m floating down.
Faces staring.
Soon after running again – on a treadmill at Great Ormond Street with wires stuck to my chest, feeling humiliated and embarrassed in my vest. Just a kinked aorta I’ll soon grow out of.
What do you remember ?
Here’s how you join in:
A REMINDER OF HOW THE BITE-SIZE MEMOIR CHALLENGE WORKS
1.Each Friday I’ll suggest a topic by 2pm UK time (BST) via my blog and Twitter (using the hashtag #BiteSizeMemoir – You don’t need to be on Twitter to participate.)
2. The challenge will be to write about the topic using
either
10 x “I remember statements”
or
150 x words (prose, or poem if you want to stretch yourself)
Either will make you pick and choose your words carefully whilst keeping a tight focus for time’s sake. You might want to write more, to keep at home, but please only submit one option within the limits for sharing (i.e. 10 statements or 150 word prose/poem)
3. The Deadline for sharing your ‘Bite’ will be 2pm (BST) the following Thursday. You can share in either of two ways:
a) Post your response in the comments section of the current topic – I will find it and cut and paste to the compilation of responses. (You may not see your comment appear immediately but don’t worry – I will find and share it)
or
b) If you have a blog you can post your response on your own blog with a link back to this post, and then also provide the link to me in the comments section. I will then link your contribution back to your post, in the compilation of responses.
4. It would be great if you felt able to include the country the events took place in – I don’t enforce this but I think it provides a significant context for other readers. As an example look at the compilation for “School at Seven”
5. I will aim to compile responses and share them via another post before the next challenge is issued.
A few rules:
1.If you need or want to be anonymous that’s fine – When you post a comment just put ‘Anon’ or a nickname in the name field. It does ask for an email address as part of spam filtering but only I will see it.
2.Please keep others anonymous to protect their privacy and dignity – change names or use initials etc.
3.If you’ve got an axe to grind, please do it somewhere else.
4.If you stumble across this after the deadline, do feel free to contribute and include your blog link in the comments section of the compilation, so others can read it.
May 29, 2014 at 11:29 pm
What a way to discover a kinked aorta! I like that you captured the child’s response–embarrassment–more so than the adult response of fear or worry.
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May 30, 2014 at 8:35 am
It’s all I remember! And Mum was a nurse, so never heaps of sympathy or overt worry!
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May 29, 2014 at 11:18 am
Hi Lisa! Phew, hope your week is going well…just made it, again, with my entry for your Sports Day theme with my 150 word memoir. Hope you like, and thanks again! – Sherri x
http://sherrimatthewsblog.com/2014/05/29/bite-size-memoir-number-4-sports-day/
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May 29, 2014 at 5:05 pm
Last across the finish line but very grateful you made the effort! Thanks Sherri !
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May 29, 2014 at 5:59 pm
Phew…well, at least I finished even if I’m last across the line, thanks Lisa 🙂
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May 29, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Let me know if it doesn’t suit your FB page for me to post the compilation there – and remove it if necessary! Won’t be offended xx
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May 30, 2014 at 9:08 am
No problem whatsoever Lisa, many thanks for the FB post 🙂 xx
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May 29, 2014 at 6:27 am
Swimming Lessons of Life
I cannot recall my childhood without seeing the sunlight shimmer off the surface of a swimming pool. I lived in the water.
By age 10, I was swimming competitively. I mostly swam sprints. The 50 free or breaststroke. Two laps. Up and back. I was good, but I wasn’t the best.
In high school, there was no doubt that I’d try out for the team. I made it. I’d swim varsity all four years. I was good, but I wasn’t the best.
I’ve wondered why I continued competing in a sport that I was at best mediocre. I’ve come to realize what I gained from swimming.
Discipline – practices at 6AM before school, 8AM on the summer team.
Teamwork – you had to swim faster than your best on a relay.
Sportsmanship – you compete against teammates – sometimes they beat you.
Pride – hard work pays off.
I miss swimming.
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May 29, 2014 at 9:07 am
I really like this question of why we do things that we’re not the best at – we have to answer it to overcome paralysis by perfectionism!
I think you’re being a little hard on yourself though Ellen – you made the team – which is far from mediocre ! And I remember running relays – the fourth in our team was never a winner at anything else but we so needed her to do her best on the day – that was all we ever expected or wanted and she was then very much part of us. To be in a team is to belong. To belong seems an important part of being human.
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May 29, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Ellen, I really love the sound of your first line “I cannot recall my childhood without seeing the sunlight shimmer off the surface of a swimming pool.” I tingle at the read of an intriguing opener, plus I love the image.
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May 29, 2014 at 4:10 am
http://wantonwordflirt.com/2014/05/29/red-ribbons-mullets/
Suzanne – Canada
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May 29, 2014 at 8:40 am
Ah yes – those terrible short, shorts – it’s a wonder anyone could move in them – before lycra. I’d be embarrassed by the amount of thigh on display, now!
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May 29, 2014 at 3:50 pm
The thought never would have entered my mind to write about sports days (or track and field day as it was called back in my school days), yet your prompt instantly brought forth a multitude of memories I had not thought of in years and years.
Reading the bites of memoir from the other writers each week also triggers new ideas for memoir writing.
Thanks Lisa + all contributors!
P.S. I am wondering where you might recommend for obtaining stock photos for use on my blog? (Preferably free, or very limited fee.)
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May 29, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Hi Suzanne
Thank you for these very kind and encouraging words for everybody – As I rack my brains for tomorrow’s topic it feels reassuring to know you’ve enjoyed my haphazard selection – so far!
As for photographs, I’ve recently signed up to the following two websites for free ‘stock’ photos but have only found one appropriate to my needs! I run round trying to set up my own or dig through personal ones whenever I can!
http://unsplash.com
http://deathtothestockphoto.com
If you come across any better options, I’d love to know.
Lisa x
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May 29, 2014 at 4:13 pm
Thanks so much Lisa, I will check them out!
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May 29, 2014 at 1:33 am
Here’s mine! Although I warn you, I basically remember the ice cream and rolling on the grass… does that count as sport? lol 🙂 http://lucciagray.wordpress.com/category/interaction-with-other-authors/bite-size-memoir/
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May 29, 2014 at 8:41 am
At least those of us participating, imagined we had an audience! Must have been quite a posh school to have ice-cream?!
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May 29, 2014 at 9:49 am
Lol! We got it from the ice-cream van!
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May 28, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Like Ruby, once I started this exercise, my memories veered into a completely different territory. I hope I have not violated the intent of BSM by doing this, but here is what your challenge pulled out of the memory pond this week http://memoir-crafter.blogspot.com/
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May 28, 2014 at 5:15 pm
I love the links one memory makes to another – fantastic parts of history mixed with the honest horrors siblings can get up to!
And I guess this might be where the phrase ‘having a field day’ comes from?
My favourite bit though is the photograph 🙉🙈🙊 ..!
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May 27, 2014 at 4:23 pm
I was surprised by how few of my sports memories were actually about sports 🙂
http://littlemissgonewild.blogspot.com/
Thanks again Lisa
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May 27, 2014 at 8:31 pm
You live your life through your thoughts not actions, I guess – more great insight from you 😊 Thank you xx
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May 25, 2014 at 6:50 pm
This little prompt was a real memory jerker – not for sport’s days per se but for how sport came to mean so much to me growing up. If you don’t want to plough through that bit of history just scroll to the end of the post at http://wp.me/p4ziei-5Z. Thank you. PS: If you did do changing rooms I might need counselling – if you’ve seen Michael McIntyre’s take on men in changing rooms you will know what I mean.
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May 26, 2014 at 8:18 am
I’m glad this one worked for you, Geoff. Is ‘frabjous’ one of those fabulous Lewis Carroll words?
And I have seen quite a few of Michael McIntyre’s sketches – Do you mean this one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqDqrG7DyjU&feature=kp
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May 26, 2014 at 5:05 pm
That’s the one; lucky me, I saw him at Wembley, though TBH, I watched him on the big screen from about 100 yards away, with him an ant-like figure bouncing across the stage. Could have been anyone really, but I WAS THERE. And frabjous is from the Jabberwocky in Through the Looking Glass. My childhood was spent reeling under lines of poetry that my dad liked, whether it was Masefield (Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack) or Carroll (Oh Frabjous day, callooh callay) or Kipling (When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools, where the otter whistles its mate). Some things never leave you…
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May 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Ah yes – I loved Kipling too and my father bought me the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe – I used to open my bedroom window and read The Raven, aloud! Only way to ‘feel’ it.
Must revisit The Jabberwocky – ‘Brillig’ is part of our family vocabulary and I’m pinching frabjous off you too! The man was genius!
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May 26, 2014 at 7:05 pm
Have a look at ‘the Land’ by Kipling if you don’t know. Says all you need to say about the dangers of ignoring experience. It s also a lovely gallop through British history.
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May 26, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Ooo, thanks – will do xx
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May 25, 2014 at 7:25 am
Another lovely glimpse into down under from Irene! Did you never forge a ‘sick note’?! One girl in our class was brilliant at copying signatures and handwriting – we didn’t overdo it but I do remember once handing over a forgery, my heart thumping til the PE teacher had finished reading and just nodded, letting me sit with a book!!
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May 24, 2014 at 5:53 pm
Lisa, sounds so traumatic. You managed to perfectly capture the emotions (high and low) in this short piece. Well done!
We don’t have Sports Day in the U.S. At least, not in California. I’ll need to think of how to connect to this with a memory of sports. I swam competitively for nearly ten years. Let’s see if the fogbank clears for a bitesize memoir!
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May 25, 2014 at 7:12 am
Hi Ellen, I bet you have some great tales to tell of competitive swimming meets and slogging through the training! A glimpse of that dedication and motivation would be fantastic to read – not something we all experience or understand but might like to to influence our own kids!
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May 24, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Hi Lisa, I have never been a big fan of sports days – as a child, a teacher or a parent, and I guess, in the not-too-distant future, grandparent. I am not good at running or jumping or much interested in any other form of exercise. I got a third place in a running race once. There were three in the race! My fair skin and the Australian sun did not couple well, and I never enjoyed being hot. However your list of memories brought back a bit of fun that was had with the sack, egg-and spoon, and three-legged races which were always as much fun as they were difficult. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
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May 25, 2014 at 7:07 am
I do know what you mean Norah, particularly as Max was never a runner! We’ve been through phases of dreading sports day. It was ok for the likes of me in with a chance of a medal – every year – and I loved it. I had ridiculously long legs at one point – they seemed to grow before the rest of me (as did my aorta!!)
In the UK, we went through a very anticompetitive time over sports so that everyone could participate in something but I think it just caused some extra sniggering from the sidelines for many. Not sure what the answer is other than teaching tolerance and acceptance because it does help self-esteem in non academic kids who get a chance to shine with sport.
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May 26, 2014 at 10:52 am
We went through an anti-competitive time over here too. I think it is still a little like that – a trophy for every child who participates.I’m not quite sure of the value of that either. I like your suggestion for teaching tolerance and acceptance, and appreciation too, I think, of individual differences. If there was more place in the curriculum and more appreciation of a whole range of abilities and talents, each one may find an opportunity to shine, not just for having a go, which is important in itself, but for demonstrating a strength in an ability.
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May 24, 2014 at 11:01 am
This one stirred up a lot of memories for me both as a child and as the mother of children. thanks again for the prompt, here’s mine:
http://traceyscotttownsend.com/2014/05/24/sports-day-bite-size-memoir-no-4/
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May 25, 2014 at 7:02 am
Thanks Tracey! Quick off the mark – tee hee!! (I see some terrible puns looming.) Glad to see I wasn’t the only one suffering in a vest – I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my class but it felt like all eyes were on me in the changing rooms! I think “Changing Rooms” might make a good topic in itself!
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May 23, 2014 at 10:53 pm
What a fright that must have been for both you and your parents.
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May 25, 2014 at 6:46 am
Well that’s funny! I’ve never even asked! I was too busy being mortified in my vest at 11 or 12!
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May 25, 2014 at 12:10 pm
🙂
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