Sooo, I’ve wanted to write about this since it happened last week.  This will be a 2-parter post (TPP)…cuz one event led to an observation that resulted in an ongoing conversation…that I’d like to invite you into. 

Soooo, we all know that my life is a Seinfeld episode.  And, I guess, i would not want it any other way…or else my blog would be pretty useless.

OK, Jennene and I have been trying to play racquetball lately.  We’ve been ‘trying’, whilst Eric has actually been playing when he plays with us.  He’s got lots of patience.  ANYway, I saw signs at the gym for ‘Free Raquetball Demo 6-8pm’.  What better way to imporve our atrocious attempts at hitting that tiny blue ball against walls than to attend a workshop?  Free too! I figured there’d be about 5 or 6 gym members being instructed by some 49 year old guy, complete with head and wrist bands, who has been playing for 10+ years and thinks he’s the ‘it’ to racquetball.  I also pictured a guy with a white tank top, hairy chest and probably driving an ‘84 corvette.  Stay tuned….

We show up to a crowd of about 40-50 HARD CORE racquetball players (the racquetball bags, gloves, outfits, goggles, the egos…the whole nine yards).  Instantly, I internally squeal with glee as I know we are stepping into a deep subculture!  Now, my dad played rball while I was growing up…he was the guy who beat everybody…in fact, he was the guy I previously described, minus the white tank and hairy chest.  My dad was REALLY REALLY good.  So, I was flashing back to the racquetball subculture immersion of my youth.  Flash forward to Jennene and I standing there looking at each other and knowing that we are so far out of our league it’s like a Seinfled episode waiting to unfold!

Through some stealthy navigating through all the testoserone, gear, hype, I gather vital information about our ‘demo-speaker’ who is about 20 minutes late.  Our demo-speaker is ranked number one in indoor AND outdoor racquetball…ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to the honorable, 29 year old, ROCKY CARSON .  He talked to the throngs, answered questions, started playing down the list of EIGHTEEN people that signed up to ‘Play with the Pro’ (they asked us if we wanted to sign up-we laughed and passed the clipboard to the next guy, who was the world champion in age 70+ division in racquetball…and slalom skiing, water skiing, etc).  It was bizarre to watch grown men drool over this kid.  It was worse than how guys act when a hot girl walks in the room.  It was like a worship service,with Rocky on the altar.  Rocky really was an UNBELIEVABLE player/athlete…and he was really genuienly a nice guy.  In fact, I kind of wondered if he was a Christian due his humility, his countenance and the way he treated people, etc.

While there are about 42 other things that made the fact that Jennene and I attended this workshop completely hilarious, I will move on to my PART 2 intro… it was CLEARLY a subculture.  And, I thrive on being exposed to sub cultures! 

J&E& I went home and started talking about sub-cultures over dinner….we brainstormed about all the subcultures we are in, have been in, were exposed to via growing up, etc… the list was immense….

Because it’s a fascinating ‘data gathering’ topic with friends and family, I brought up the same discussion with Paul and Becka when I was at their place in the OC (which is it’s own subculture, as well).  We had a lot of laughs and ‘oh yeah!’s      PART 2 will be a list of subcultures…I want to hear your contributions too!