Playing Ball

     One of the best ways to learn to play sports is after school and on weekends with friends. My best friend's Dad started teasing us about playing together in the second grade. We were both too embarrassed about this and stopped playing together. Also some of the boys who played with him would not play with me. When his Dad found us playing under the four o'clock bushes he called him a 'girly girl' for 'playing with flowers.' 

     I turned to my next door neighbors who were boys and I played cars and built forts with them. These friends would not let me play ball with them. I wanted to so badly. I begged them to let me play baseball. They said baseball was for boys not girls... Ron said I threw like a girl but would not teach me how to throw better. Ron said I ran like a girl...but I ran like the wind. Roger, his younger brother tried to stick up for me but nobody listened to him. I dont think his own mother ever liked him because he reminded her of his father. I don't keep up with this family but I think Roger liked motorcycles. This went on long enough that I had no self esteem concerning sports and hated to play when I was in school. I was the last kid to be chosen for sports. For the first few years in school I was able to play dodgeball and other games as well as the other kids. After the third grade I could not muster the self confidence to play. That's when everything started to go downhill. Some of my self esteem problems were connected to not being able to play ball with my friends because I was a girl. This boy also told me that I could never be a writer because I was a girl and that I could not wear plaid because I was a girl. I know Ron had the dream of being a writer. 

     When I think about this family I get enraged. Why would they do this to me? Where were the parents when this was going on? My Dad talked to their Dad repeatedly about Ron and his friends excluding me. Didn't Gene and Marion talk to him about including me? Didn't they talk to him about teasing me and telling me I was not good enough? Parents must teach children when they are young about fairness and kindness in play. Parents must monitor their children and make sure they don't exclude other children in play. I am still angry with this family and will pray for the strength to forgive them. If I forgive them it will be for me and the ripple effect it can cause. It won't be for them. I know they think they have been punished already for their sins. No amount of punishment can atone for this representation of repression of women. 

Best Wishes and Thank you Dear Ones,

Miss Diana

copywright Diana Peate Semlear