Wyl Staedtler
Dec 9th, 2005, 03:42:58 PM
This is too cool.
I got an email from my dad today that said simply, "The twelfth annual Arress Playoffs are happening right now out back." Arress is the evolved form of R.S which comes from Rah Shawn, short for the Rah Shawn Exhibition Playoffs. My brother invented this when he was eleven.
When we were younger there was this kid on our street named Shawn Wallace who was paralysed from the neck down. None of us ever paid him much attention because he obviously couldn't do anything that we did during the year. In winter his dad would shovel a path through their backyard to the edge of the pond so that when Shawn wasn't sick he could sit and watch us skating around. It was understood that as long as us neighborhood kids did our best to keep the path cleared, we were allowed to cut through the Wallace's backyard (the quickest way to the pond) and in summer eat their huckleberries.
Shawn was the same age as my brother Jason, and I guess Jas felt bad because when he was eleven he started going over to the Wallace's and hanging out with Shawn. He was always pretty quiet when he came home; when I or one of my siblings asked him what was wrong he would shrug and just say, "It's not fair, what the heck did he do to deserve that?"
Anyway, one year Jason decided that since Shawn loved hockey but couldn't play, the next best thing would be to have a tournament in his honor. There weren't a lot of kids in our area, but there were enough for six three-person teams. I don't know why, but Jas decreed that the playoffs would start by each team skating out and yelling "Rah, rah, rah, rah!". So it ended up being called the Rah Shawn Exhibition Playoffs. Mr. Wallace, or Shawn's brother Danny, would help us set it up at a time when Shawn was fairly healthy so he could watch. It was such a success with all the kids that we started holding it every year, until we moved away, of course.
Now, years later, kids are still doing it. I doubt they even know who Shawn is, or even what 'Arress' really means. Shawn's twenty-two now if he's still around and I can't help but think that he'd be pretty stoked to find out about this. :)
I got an email from my dad today that said simply, "The twelfth annual Arress Playoffs are happening right now out back." Arress is the evolved form of R.S which comes from Rah Shawn, short for the Rah Shawn Exhibition Playoffs. My brother invented this when he was eleven.
When we were younger there was this kid on our street named Shawn Wallace who was paralysed from the neck down. None of us ever paid him much attention because he obviously couldn't do anything that we did during the year. In winter his dad would shovel a path through their backyard to the edge of the pond so that when Shawn wasn't sick he could sit and watch us skating around. It was understood that as long as us neighborhood kids did our best to keep the path cleared, we were allowed to cut through the Wallace's backyard (the quickest way to the pond) and in summer eat their huckleberries.
Shawn was the same age as my brother Jason, and I guess Jas felt bad because when he was eleven he started going over to the Wallace's and hanging out with Shawn. He was always pretty quiet when he came home; when I or one of my siblings asked him what was wrong he would shrug and just say, "It's not fair, what the heck did he do to deserve that?"
Anyway, one year Jason decided that since Shawn loved hockey but couldn't play, the next best thing would be to have a tournament in his honor. There weren't a lot of kids in our area, but there were enough for six three-person teams. I don't know why, but Jas decreed that the playoffs would start by each team skating out and yelling "Rah, rah, rah, rah!". So it ended up being called the Rah Shawn Exhibition Playoffs. Mr. Wallace, or Shawn's brother Danny, would help us set it up at a time when Shawn was fairly healthy so he could watch. It was such a success with all the kids that we started holding it every year, until we moved away, of course.
Now, years later, kids are still doing it. I doubt they even know who Shawn is, or even what 'Arress' really means. Shawn's twenty-two now if he's still around and I can't help but think that he'd be pretty stoked to find out about this. :)