Stick an arrow in it
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (63594)
United States
September 3, 2024 10:40pm CST
So, I'm not a big sports fan. But when a kid in Cedar Park is selected for the para-Olympics in archery, well, I'm interested. Austin is just south/east of Cedar Park and it is where my wife's folks live.
So, it is not just because he's local, but because it is archery. I loved archery when I did it at the Girl Scout camp.
I honestly probably wouldn't have passed my second semester of P.E. in college if it hadn't been for archery. It was Badminton and Archery.
Because we were inside in the winter trying to figure out if I will ever return the bird anymore than I had the ball in tennis the semester before.
Then we went out for the first nice-ish day to shoot arrows. However, first day of archery. I go and get a 25 pound bow. The teacher looks at me, but kept going. There is this big, tall and strong not fat, guy, the teacher handed a 40 pound bow to.
Now I then gave the teacher a look.
She shows us how to string the bow. I string mine. The guy is next to me, struggling. It wasn't that he wasn't strong enough, he just didn't know how to put the instructions in to use. I told him, softly, to hand me the bow.
Now he looked at me. I stuck my foot into the bow, cranked it over my leg and strung it for him.
The teacher is saying that you can't pull a bow you can't string. This time he looks at me again. I kind of laugh. As we are walking out to the targets he asked if I could pull it. I told him I could pull it, but I couldn't hold it long enough to aim it. So, we are now out at the targets. The ground was soft, but not mushy, good, because you know we were going to have to walk out there and get those arrows later. We shoot our first round of arrows. Then the teacher walks out to see how people did. Several hit the targets or at least the hay bales. Then she gets to mine... I am the only one who hit the center of the target. The guy laughed and asked if I were a 'ringer.'
When we went back in at the end of class and I showed him how to undo the string, because he just wasn't one of those kinds of learners I guess. But before he unstrung it, he asked to see if I could really pull it, so I did.
Oh, and I was the only one that first class that didn't end up with a bruise on the inside of my left, or bow, arm. I had learned that lesson with lesser bows! And I was the first in the class to shot an arrow all the way through a bale, not in that first class, but...
I am not athletic. I wasn't then either. However... there are a few things I can do... How about you, do you have an unexpected talent?
6 people like this
6 responses
@SIDIKIMPOLE (1818)
• Eldoret, Kenya
4 Sep
It is absurd I am almost 40 and yet to gain from any of my talents!
3 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
4 Sep
I never had a chance to do anything with archery, besides look good in that one class. But, I suspect if I had a bow and arrow and someone was coming at me, I'd shoot it... I'm kind of crazy like that.
Oh, but you are here and maybe you can gain from this writing talent... And, I'm closing in on 71!
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
4 Sep
I suspect most people don't learn unless they want to. I once told someone that I don't swim. They were shocked. "You can't swim?" she asked. I replied: "I can swim, I just don't like to." I did actively rescue someone once, but only because I was... in the wrong place at the right time?
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
5 Sep
@wolfgirl569 our mother wanted us to be safe in the water. She could sort of swim, but she knew living in Texas, we would probably want something fun, like swimming. And, if we went up to New Jersey, where both of our parents were from, we'd probably be going to the shore. Girl Scout camp was where I learned the bow and I actually enjoyed it.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (106192)
• Marion, Ohio
4 Sep
@ElicBxn I never learned to swim at all. I know the basics of the bow because hubby hunts with one
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (47308)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Sep
I can usually find a washroom when I need one, but these days, I have little compunction to not use a parking lot or grassy verge when the urge comes on me suddenly.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
4 Sep
That's cool. When I was in high school I learned to do a punch rug. My sister's art teacher asked if I could come in and show them how to do a punch rug. Now, when she asked this, I was now in college, so it wasn't like I was going to school. I think part of the reason was she had me in art when the school opened when I was in 9th grade. My sister is 4 years younger and was 5 grades behind me. Not her fault, I just went to private first at 5 instead of waiting until I was 6. Probably the reason was my parents didn't want me to be a grade behind all the kids my age in the neighborhood. I say 'my age' but I'm talking about them being born in 1953 like me. In fact, I knew of only 1 other student in my class who was younger, she and I went to the same private school, just I was born in November and she was born in December. (She is also smarter and more driven than I am.)
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
7 Sep
Oh, we all have something. Maybe won't save a life, but it is something special that you can do without trying too hard. My friend Maggiepie here on myLot could mess up at sewing machine in no time flat. When she, and I, were in school, we had to take Home Economics because aren't all girls going to marry, have kids and take care of a home? Her teacher finally let her sit off to the side and draw pictures. She couldn't afford to have all her sewing machines out of order!
