James Laird - Lark Ellen Boys Attend Emerson Jr. High School - Page 2

We always started with exercises to get us limbered up before each kid in the class did his thing. Plenty of push ups and chin ups went with each day's class. Once in a great while we would go outside to play games like the other kids. Most of the time we used the gym equipment or learned a few tumbling moves or if you were game use the rings or high bar and parallel bars or horses. On my last year they turned me loose. My back must have straightened up.

The playground was covered in decomposed granite which was great for running but not to good if you fell down. We also had outside rings and bars. I was not game to learn how to use the rings but did play around on the bars and could do a few of the moves but was chicken to do the giant swing or the flyaway dismount. I was one of the three fastest boys in my class in the 75 yard dash (that's all the bigger the field was). Mel Patton was the fastest and later set a world record in the Olympics while attending USC in the one hundred meters. It was a toss up between Don Stone and me as to which came in second.

At noon we did arm wrestling and what we called Indian wrestling. With Indian wrestling each contestant would put a matching foot out in front next to the other persons and grip the other persons hand like a handshake. At the word given by a third party you tried to get the other person off balance causing them to move either foot. Lesser talents were allowed to move their back foot. You could also play this on a bench trying to get the opponent to fall off. If you had some good arm moves you could usually get the other person off balance very quickly.