Idol Time

While we are talking about mysteries, I remember one about my own life. For a year in high school, I played in a badminton league. When I was a kid, my parents were avid tennis players so they insisted that all their children learn to play. Until he passed away, my father would remind me how disappointed he was when I gave up my tennis lessons. "You had a talent, Pandave, the coach said so." Perhaps the coach saw something that I never did - I just know that my serve was atrocious.

I went through a phase when I took up squash. Serving the ball was less challenging and the game was more dynamic. I loved whacking the little ball into the wall and running madly about the court, working up a sweat. The big mystery is how badminton came into play. Did we have to play it during gym class? Did I read about it in a novel and decide to emulate the heroine? Whatever happened, I ended up knowing how to play badminton. And then I ended up in a team.

The team was made up of three girls from my high school (I was one of them) and three boys from a nearby boys' school. None of us were friends before we started playing, so I have no idea how we three were picked. We called our team Mony Mony, played mixed doubles and travelled around town, playing in a league. Did a teacher at school set up the league and, if so, why? It couldn't be that the school was trying to promote badminton because no one from school ever came to watch us play. Did I mention that we were the youngest people in this league? By far? We were pretty much going to various recreation centres around town and playing mostly retirees (occasionally we would play against people who were our parents' age). Badminton was not a cool sport to play, which may be why we were the only kids playing in this league.

There are people who write about the crazy periods in their lives when they went on drug or alcohol-fueled benders. My bender involved a racquet and a shuttlecock. I don't know how it began and I have idea how it ended. I do know that Billy Idol was a part of it and I wore a lot of little skirts.