There were two lessons a week during my high school years that I came to dread, Physical Education, or PE as we called it back then, and its even less appealing sister lesson, Games.
Up until High School my athletic capabilities were well documented in the annual school reports. I can distil several years of Games Master summaries down to “Tries Hard, but don’t pin your hopes on a glittering sporting career for Tim.”
My arrival at the large scale “Comprehensive” school changing room for my first ever experience of High School Games changed everything. The boys changing facility became a location I spent the next five years trying to avoid at all costs.
For a start I was never correctly equipped, with my “PE Kit” either handed down, or purchased second-hand, I was on the back foot from the start. The changing room was a vast open plan area lined with metal frames and wooden benches. The air was heavy with the scent of several decades of male sweat combined with school disinfectant and fresh mud. There was an overwhelming sense of grime, which is a shame because as well as the tireless efforts of school cleaners, cleaning was also undertaken by students with notes excusing them from games, who were compelled to sweep and clean.
The open plan area made it difficult for a person with body image issues to get changed with any degree of comfort. My oddly shaped chest proving to be a valid target for taunting and laughs that never seemed to get old for the boisterous sporting thugs in the class.
Having explained my loathing of School Sports, I will get to the point of this post. I was prompted to remember my struggle to cope with such activities as locating Silly Mid Off, by this display of shoes I spotted in Target the other day. I couldn’t resist a snap. I’m not entirely sure what sports these shoes are intended for, but I am confident I would have been much more successful at them, than I ever was with Rugby or Football.
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