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 The true origin of the Hoseball is shrouded in mystery and buried in the coffin of time. I first learned of it when it was called a Schmerltz, during days of the New Games Foundation and all that was implied thereby.
At last Friday's first official Junior Junkmaster Training, where the chosen ones, leaders of recreation throughout the vast holdings of Redondo Beach, participated in something similar to an hour of madcap Junkyard Sports making. Our junk collection included a large repository of panty hose and socks, a couple plastic bags full of plastic bags, a few paper grocery bags, and some plastic tie-downs.
For demonstration purposes, I had prepared several Schmerltz-like objects that I had made by stuffing a good-size ball of socks into a leg cut from a pair of pantyhose (as illustrated). For some reason, when I introduced these to the group, I didn't call them Schmerltzes, as I once had, but referred to them as, yes, Hoseballs.
There are other definitions and uses for the word, I must admit. There's not-so-vaguely sexual game and a baseball-like game that uses a piece of rubber hose for a ball. And there are other words for Schmerltz, including a commercial thing called a Fling Sock, and the more traditional "Socks-in-Pantyhose" or "Socks in Sock" or "Socker Thing."
But as of Friday, regardless of precedent or what, it became, officially and forever, a Junkyard Sports® Hoseball.
We really only got to play two junkly sports at the Redondo Beach Fun Fest: Ultimate Hoseball and the Fling-off.
Ultimate Hoseball took a good hour to play. Not that it couldn't have taken a good half-hour, or probably good half-day. Each of the two goals (there could have been more, you know) was made out of a water bottle (half-filled with sand so that it wouldn't blow over). The game was based on Ultimate Frisbee, of course. Basically, you couldn't run with the hoseball. So you had to throw it to a team mate, who, in turn, had to throw it to another team mate, who was hopefully close enough to the appropriate goal-bottle to knock it over. Yes, I know, there were some very important rules left out. But no one seemed to care. The game worked. People came and went, as is the tradition in most good and funly fests, joining this team or that. Or just watching. Or maybe blowing bubbles, as was their wont.
The Fling-off started when some younger kids joined, and the older amongst us had had enough. The goal - to see how many hoseballs we could get in the air at the same time. This was a perfect finish to our fest-part. The high-flying hoseballs were just the thing to attract people from all over the field. It was self-explanatory. And seeing all those hoseballs in flight was kind of, well, spectacular. Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts) |
