Who knew?
It has been said that it is never too late to learn something new. My friend always tells me that if you learn something new, something that you are not familiar with at all, like a new language, it is really good for your brain. It’s something about creating new synapses. (My friends are a lot smarter than I am, so I just smile and nod.) But it does sound quite plausible.
My dad used to read a lot of biographies, so he was always learning something new. In the end, unfortunately, I don’t really think it helped him when he started getting sick, but I know, for sure, that he really enjoyed reading and learning facts that he tried to pass on to me. I listened intently because I loved him so much, but truth be told, I never really knew what he was talking about. And is there a way to make Winston Churchill exciting?
So where is this going? Girls high school soccer. No, I am not kidding. That is where this is going. When I was in high school, I was on the volleyball team. I remember my coach’s name was Linda, and because I still have my uniform, I know that I was number 10. That is all I can tell you. I have vague recollections of a bus ride home with my friend Jilli, crawling under the floor to get into my seat — don’t ask me why — well, you can, but I wouldn’t tell you the answer. Don’t know if I played well or at all. Don’t know who else was on the team or what our record was. I just know that I wasn’t athletic enough to make the basketball team, so volleyball it was.
There was no soccer team. I always thought that soccer needed to be played like the Red Bulls play it, in a huge stadium on a huge field. Actually that isn’t true. Son #3 was the goalie of his soccer team, and that field wasn’t huge (though it felt it at the time) but it was outside. And another son played soccer indoors at the Armory in Teaneck. I have no idea which son. I will have to get back to you on that; hope the anticipation isn’t too much for you.
In any event, my very dear friend from the Island of Long reached out to me to tell me that her soccer team was in the championships, and those championships were going to be played in the building where I used to go to high school.
Now I knew that she was a coach, but I guess I never really realized that she was the coach of girls soccer. Or maybe I did know that, but, at my age, I am happy if I wake up and know what day of the week it is.
So I tell Husband #1 that Sunday’s afternoon activity was going to be attending a girls high school soccer championship. The excitement was palpable. Thank goodness the Rangers and the Knicks were already out of the playoffs, or we would have had a real scheduling quandary on our hands.
Well, I am happy to say that girls high school soccer is alive and well and quite nail-biting to witness. There is lots of running, lots of skirts, lots of balls bouncing off variously coiffed heads, and as in all sports, lots of ice packs being handed out for various injuries. There were many more tears than I had ever witnessed when my boys played Jew aka Street hockey, but that could just be a girl thing. Yes, I know that wasn’t politically correct; please add it to the list.
For me, it was surreal being in the building where I went to high school. I found my locker, pointed out to Husband #1 where the pay phones used to be, and when I went into the girls’ bathroom, it was almost like it was 1984 again and the Moriah girls were teaching the Yavneh girls how to twist the bottoms of their sweatpants so they would look cooler.
Unfortunately, back in 2025, my friend’s team lost, but they have really good middot (Jewish values) and that is all that matters. And I had made her a really cool sign with Strudel’s markers that smell like fruit.
That’s all I got this week.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck has ended her six-year tenure with her favorite surrogate granddaughter. It is really amazing what has happened, both good and bad, in the past six years.
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