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How I Broke My Nose at 4 am. At Church. Here’s What Happened…
What could possibly go wrong?
Come back with me, if you will, to the summer of ‘79…
Our church had a gym, a game room and a skating rink. Every few months we’d have a “lock-in” for us college guys, spending the night and playing basketball and other games all night until dawn.
Side Note: I actually ran the church summer day camp for 2 summers in a row but that’s another story for another time.
On one such occasion we decided to bring our racquetball racquets, even though we did not have a racquetball court at the church gym.
If I remember correctly, we thought we might play early the next morning…
So we made up a game
So we made up a game we called “Kamikaze Racquetball” — 6 guys on each team, 3 up court and 3 back court. Wisely we decided the goal was not to get the racquetball in the net, you just had to hit the basketball backboard with the ball.
So if my math is correct that’s 12 college age guys running up and down a basketball court chasing a little blue ball while wildly swinging racquetball racquets…
What could possibly go wrong?
Seriously though. Because before the night in question, we had actually played on 2 different lock-in occasions with absolutely no problems.
The 3rd time is the charm
The 3rd time is the charm though.
The first injury happened around midnight when one guy went down with a severely sprained ankle and we took him to the local ER.
The 2nd injury came around 2:30 am when the pastor’s son-in-law went down with a broken ankle and we took him to the same ER.
Then around 4 am I caught David Twiddy’s backhand across my nose and went down with a broken bleeding nose and we went to the same ER.
Side Note: These were the final 2 of 10 stitches I got in my face in one month that summer. Again, another story for another time…
One of the nurses finally asked:
Nurse: “Must be some kind of party. Where are ya’ll coming from and what are you doing?”
Us: (all together, with straight faces) “Church.”
The look on their faces was priceless.
And that’s how I broke my nose at 4 am on a Saturday morning at church.
Amazingly, we were prohibited from ever playing that game again.
At church anyway… ;-)
Side Note: And now another story for this time: