Roller Derby

About six months ago, my oldest daughter came and asked me if she could participate in roller derby.  You did read that right, the sport that my tiny grandmother used to crowd to the rail and yell at people back in the 1960s has experienced a resurgence, I think mainly because of the Drew Barrymore movie "Whip it".  The story of a young woman who learns "Derby" and comes into her own.  I am willing to admit that I'm wrong, that's just where I heard about it from.

So, I made inquiries and learned that, indeed there was a Roller Derby league in the area,  The Jersey Shore Roller Girls, but that you had to be 18 to join.  My daughter was a disappointed 16, so we let it go for a while.  A few months later, she called to tell me that JSRG had formed a junior league and could she please join.  She gave me the big brown eyed look so we went.   Then we went and dropped a lot of money on padding.

I wasn't sure what to expect from these women.  I remember the Derby that my grandmother watched.  The women who participated, I remembered as bruisers.  Nothing really very feminine about them (Please keep in mind that, I was six, so this would be 1968.  Memory tends to muddle things.) and the sport was ROUGH!

As I recall it, there were waist high railings around the entire ring.  It was elevated from the center.  The only rule seemed to be to absolutely DESTROY the other team. Elbows seemed to be the weapon of choice.  It was not unusual for women to go flipping over the rails into the chairs behind and be pummeled by the little old ladies in the audience beyond, with their purses.  I was letting my daughter get involved in this?

Well, it turns out that it has changed considerably since those days.  The ring is now flat, not elevated.  There are rules about using your elbows (It's frowned upon).  It's still a full contact sport, mind you, but it seems to be, at least somewhat, sane.   I don't understand the rules.  I'm not even going to try to explain what I *do* know because I'm sure that, as soon as I publish this blog, one of the JSRG will fill me in.

Let me tell you the biggest and nicest surprise about the league:  The women are not bruisers.  Off the ring, they're not even mean.  They're delightful women.  The sport gives them self confidence and pride.  They have jobs during the day as well:  Teachers, Legal Secretaries, Moms, you name it.  I have not met one, yet, that I didn't get along with and actively like.  They also nurture the Junior girls.  I've watched my daughter grow in confidence and bearing.   It's an amazing thing.

Now the younger one wants to do it as well.  When her arm heals from the spill she took trying to do something called a "plough stop", with no padding and the wrong kind of skates:  we'll discuss it.

Reticent Blatherer

Welcome

Another try at a blog for me.  I haven't actually kept one up since March of 2008.  Reticent Blathering was a rambling discourse on the progress of my divorce.  With the divorce done, I didn't feel any need to keep the blog up.  So now, I'm going to try this one.

The title comes from one of my partner's co-workers.  A woman who used to be a professional baker and is now a fund raiser who fancies herself a database expert.  During our conversation, I was asking about this worker's blog and suggested it was called "Baked Goods And Bad Data".  Realizing that that wasn't, in fact, the title of her blog, I snatched it up.

Here we are.  I hope to include in this thoughts, pictures, philosophies and maybe some short fiction I've written.  I hope you enjoy.  Feel free to comment.

Reticent Blatherer