The bell sounds and it is everyone's favorite time of the school day, RECESS! Who didn't love recess time? It broke up the school day and got us kids out and running around. We were able to breathe the fresh air needed to relieve the scent of the token kid in class who always seemed to fart but never wanted to claim it (Is it just me or did all elementary school farts smell the same?). It cleared our sinuses from the shitty lunch being brewed up from the crabby lunch ladies, as the smell of that god awful macaroni casserole filled your classroom and made your stomach queasy inside of you. Unfortunately, the grind of elementary school lunch is the price you must pay to get those 30 minutes of freedom each day. You have to battle that stray black hair in your soup, or the putrid taste of industrial cans of corn that may or may not have been served in WWII. The reward was always the constant, recess. Recess was for every kind of kid, ranging from booger eaters that enjoyed using the outside wall to stick their salty treats onto, from the jocks that enjoyed a nice game of touch football on the gravel to the girls who just enjoyed gossiping about who could or couldn't grow tits yet.
My recess was always based around how many touches I could get on the battleground, aka the 40 yards of blacktop we roamed while playing hard-nosed touch football while wearing uniforms. Not the kind of uniforms our sports heroes wear, I'm talking school uniforms. I went to catholic school up until high school and I wouldn't trade those navy blue, white, or red polo shirts for anything! They were our badge of honor and really offered a great sense of flexibility for all of us. Getting back to recess, some could call me a young Theo Epstein, the way I maneuvered trades involving my hot lunch was something to behold. You want my chicken nuggets? You’re gonna have to pass me the ball at least 5 more times a game that day. Hot stove season was every day when it came to Ross' hot lunch. Anything and everything was up for grabs. (Except Pizza Hut day, a fat kids gotta eat, and boy was I ever fat.) I was the Randy Moss of playground football, soft hands and great size, just a freak of nature. I even had the same great positive attitude as well. I was so selfless and always a team player, SIKE! I think that is what made me such a playground warrior, my ability to sacrifice my own food for the betterment of myself and my playground stats (yes, I kept stats for myself on a game that was played on an unmarked "field" of blacktop. I just guessed it was 50 yards) I didn't care if we won or lost, as long as I was getting mine, nothing else mattered. I was a leader in that way. I let the QB have it if I wasn't getting the ball enough. I feed you (literally) you feed me, that was my motto. For all the kids out there, the key to getting the ball more is to simply trade away some lunch pieces and soon YOU will be the franchise. It is really about being the team player and I am a prime example of that.
PS: I don't know about you guys but we had to eat a certain amount of food on our trays or we couldn't go to recess. My biggest challenge to trade was that disgusting corn. I liken it to an old washed up veteran in the trenches, offers great expertise of the game but just not a lot of on field value. A very tough piece to move. I used to hide it in my mouth and go upstairs to the bathroom and spit it all out in the toilet, and i didn't flush it either. That is what a true ballplayer does when pushed to the brink. Take notes kids. It is about sacrifice. Some days I would leave school absolutely starving because I needed those extra passes more than I needed food to fuel me. That is when you know you want it badly. Legend.