The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: TENNIS COURT

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are straws, studio, stuffed animal, summer job, tattoos, telephone, tennis court, test, theater.

TENNIS COURT

I do not have a lot of experience with a tennis court. Maybe I inherited this from my mother, because I remember a story of hers from college. She went to Florida State University, and she wanted to learn how to play tennis, so she signed up for a class – only to find out that tennis class wasn't about “learning” tennis at all! Grades were assigned according to how well you students performed in the “tournament.” My mother, not being a previous player, didn't do so well!

I do have one memory of meeting a high school (boy) friend to play tennis at the Samford University tennis courts. We were “just friends.” We also got together at the raquetball courts at Sportsplex (a local gym). Looking back, maybe he wanted us to be more than friends? I don't know, but he was extremely patient with my lack of playing abilities and seemed to enjoy himself regardless of my ineptitude! I'm so grateful – we all need friends like that.