Anecdote

During our swim workout, my dad reminded me of this story (most of the details of which I'd mostly forgotten):
When we first moved into our old neighborhood there was a wealthy family who lived at the end of the cul-de-sac (and thus had a huge lot) and had a badminton court in their backyard. Every summer they had a fourth of July party for the street, and it fostered a great sense of community. I've never known my neighbors like I knew those, and it felt nice. Anyway, the first or second summer we were there, I was six or seven, and my dad and I played as partners in the badminton tournament versus the owner of the house and his friend (who were in their sixties at the time). My dad used to play competitively (but not on any large scale)--a fact I was not aware of until today--so his ability to hit it hard and place the birdie where he wanted to combined with my valiant effort to return lobs plus their retiree-style slo-mo game equalled us winning. Years before he had apparently had a trophy made for the event, and his family had held the title ever since. So when the two of us won, he was fairly hurt, and extremely reluctant to turn it over. I think he eventually did, because I remember seeing it somewhere around the house (though we probably gave it back at some point). After that, the fourth of July parties kind of died out, and I'm not sure if it was because of the badminton or because they were just tired of having the whole street over every year. Aheh. Perhaps I give myself (or my dad) too much credit. :)