The task? Climb a rope in gym class

I started junior high in September 1964, taking seventh-grade classes at Norco Junior High in Norco, California. I had gym class in the afternoon five days a week. In those days, California officials were putting a big emphasis on physical fitness.

Hi, I’m Mike Staton and I wrote this blog post.

In late October 1965, my family moved from Norco all the way across the USA to Wadsworth, Ohio. When I began classes in Wadsworth Junior High, I expected to be taking gym class all five days a week. That wasn’t the case. I only had gym twice a week. To say I was surprised would be a bit of an understatement.

In Norco, the gym teacher didn’t have his students climb a rope hanging from a rafter in the gym. It was different in Wadsworth. In gym class one day in eighth grade, I was told to climb a rope. Being from California, I was in pretty good shape since I took gym class every school day. So I grabbed the rope and shimmied up it all the way to where it was tied to a rafter. That success surprised me. I thought I’d fail.

Do you remember having to do a rope climb in gym class?

Wadsworth Junior High had another activity I don’t recall having to play when I took gym class in Norco: Dodge ball. I think most folks remember playing this sport when they were in school. I don’t really need to explain the rules or how much it hurt when a volleyball smacked you in the chest. Enough to say I wasn’t a fan of the sport.

Dodge ball…another painful experience in gym class.

The junior high in Wadsworth had been the high school in olden times, but a new high school had been built in the early 1960s. The former high school had an old-fashioned basket court that had doubled as a theater setup. We played dodge ball on the basketball court. I never lasted very long. The opposing team seemed to take delight in causing pain. The ball invariably left a bright red spot on my skin. I survived – barely. Hey, I’m kidding. But it really was survival of the fittest. A fine example of evolution in action.

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I’m Mike Staton and I’m an author with six published novels. Three are sword and sorcery novels, and the last three have American Civil War settings. The latest, which debuted on May 1, takes place during Reconstruction in North Carolina, and stars a newspaper editor, and his wife, a graphic artist. It’s part of a four-book series that will see my main characters head westward into the American frontier in the final novel, now being written. I’m currently writing that fourth book, which I’ve titled ‘A Wyoming Dawn: A New Beginning.’