Tom McCarter MDI Contributor
I have to admit, when this theme was first brought to me, I was stumped.
Times I had laughed out loud with my men? … Hmmm.
I could remember many amazing things we had done throughout the years, but fun and laughing together? Again … hmmm. And then I remembered: wet mattress rugby!
I realize that part of the reason I don’t remember is because my poor physical condition prevents me from participating in most of these activities. But they are fun to observe!
This was at a regional overnight. Teams were divided into shirts and skins. The overnight was at a YMCA camp complete with a football field. The rules were simple: a soaking wet king size mattress was hauled out to the middle of the field. The teams were told that, in order to win, they had to carry the mattress through the opposite goalposts. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen! In the course of the ensuing battle, the men shredded the mattress, so only the metal frame and the springs remained. Men were getting gouged and scratched, but they didn’t care!
And eventually, one team prevailed.
That memory brought on a flood of other memories. Back in the mid 90s, my men’s division “Source” hosted a regional event two years in a row: the Stupid Fucking Olympics. Each division was charged with coming up with a wild competitive game.
This was back when there were 10 divisions in the Western Region. I can only remember a few of the games. One involved six men sitting in a line with a 5-gallon bucket of flour in front of the lead man and a coffee can next to the man at the end. The object was to pass the flour over the heads of the men from front to back and then fill the coffee can at the end. And since it was a competition with different teams competing at the same time, there was no time to waste! It was called the Dusty Doughboy.
Another game was had men heaving a female mannequin as far as they could, like a javelin toss.
A third game involved sitting on a swing and picking up cherries with your toes and depositing them in a bucket. The games lasted all day, and boy they were fucking stupid … which made them so much fun.
Another crazy event we held was what was called a “Walk West” on New Year’s Day. The Regional Coordinator invited all the region men to bring their Christmas trees down to a beach together at 6 a.m. We piled them all together, stripped naked, and 200 men walked west into the ocean, and then circled up around the tree pile, which was then set ablaze.
Funny, in looking back, I can’t imagine the women groups coming up with any of such activities for themselves.