Advocating for Silliness (plus a trade with Chris/Nachos Grande)

As I started this post, our new upstairs neighbors' children were heading out the door, backpacks in tow as they went to meet the bus for the first day of school. Just like that, summer - or at least the portion of the year that is unofficially recognized as summer - is apparently done. While I have coached and tutored for a long time, the previous school year was the first in which I worked in a substitute teaching and paraprofessional role, in part to gain additional perspective as to what I may or may not want to do professionally on a long-term basis. A major positive aspect of being a substitute on a district-wide basis is having the opportunity to effectively pick your schedule and assignments. Given that I have sleep issues that can make waking up early on a consistent basis problematic and have been battling a sinus infection for eight months now, having the opportunity to eschew morning assignments at the high school (which starts at 7:25 AM) or outdoor supervisory work on bitter cold days that would have made me then feel ill for a week was a crucial bit of flexibility that is not available when one is working full-time at a given school.

2004 Topps Bazooka Adventure Relics
Edgardo Alfonzo

Having worked primarily with kids who are in fifth grade and up for most of the time that I have been coaching/tutoring, I was also keen on seeing different perspectives and environments. My personal experiences during school varied greatly as I rose through the grades, with the changes in social dynamics turning what was a fun time in elementary school into often stress-inducing ordeals in middle/high school in which the bell to end classes was the world's most welcome sound. Save for having to endure one riled-up tenth grade history class, I was fortunately able to avoid much in the way of exposure to situations that took me back to the negative experiences that I had in school, although it was impossible to not take note of how very different things were at the various levels.

Particularly as a daily substitute, filling in for classes on the middle school and high school levels was often akin to babysitting. All of the students' assignments were uploaded to sites accessible via their personal laptop computers and only once did I have to answer questions as to how to analyze a given portion of an assignment. Past that, my time was largely spent giving permission for students to use the bathroom, retrieve items from their lockers, and check in with other teachers, while once again counting down the minutes until the bell rang. I suppose that it is certainly better to be doing so out of boredom than being stressed in the manner that I often was while growing up, yet it was still not a compelling environment in which to spend one's time. In contrast, there always seemed to be something happening in most of the elementary school classes in which I substituted. The pair of week-long stints that I took with a pair of kindergarten classes were most certainly the most enjoyable experiences from my first year of substituting, as they gave both me and the students to build relationships and develop routines that allowed the day to flow. Even single-day assignments with older grades in elementary schools offered the potential to provide instruction, which was certainly more fulfilling than effectively playing bathroom gatekeeper. What was also intriguing was that even as the students got older, they still maintained a level of silliness and excitement even as social dynamics changed and attempts to seem "cool" emerged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

During my brief assignments at the various schools prior to baseball season, I received a pair of drawings from kindergarten students. One was a picture of me drawn by a boy in a class where I had spent a full week, with the student attempting to include as many details as possible, including the computer-generated stick-on name tag that I had to wear every day. This boy's older brothers happened to play Majors in the spring, with the boy making sure to come over, say hi, and let me know what the class had been up to on the occasions in which the team that I coached faced his brothers' squad. He and his entire class were outstanding and the students all definitely loved to be creative when afforded the chance.

The other drawing that I received came from a girl in a very rambunctious kindergarten class at another school, one in which keeping an eye on everything that tended to transpire in even the shortest span of time felt like a ten-person job. This student said that she wanted me to remember the day, so she drew an array of purple flowers of various length. When I asked why purple flowers, which were not featured in any of the activities that the class had attempted and were definitely not yet in bloom with snow still on the ground, her reply was that it was silly and she liked them. They were silly and I, too, liked them.

As alluded to earlier, one can observe the manner in which social dynamics start to change as one bounces between grade levels, with the third and fourth grade classes for which I subbed definitely showing the signs of social stratification. Something that amused me about one particular assignment was the manner in which one of the boys in class took great pains to note that he was an amazing athlete and most certainly far more mature than the rest of his classmates. About what was this worldly nine-year-old writing for his current classroom project? A presentation on why puppies are cute.

Bringing up this story is not intended to embarrass this student; after all, my third grade teacher encouraged us to write short stories and nearly all of mine centered around adventures featuring the classroom hamster (Daisy), another student's anthropomorphic Koosh ball (Scopes), or both. Rather, I want to celebrate the fact that even the "cool" kids in elementary school are still writing about how animals are cute and other ideas that are deemed to be silly in a positive fashion, yet are often derided when students get just a little bit older. I used to draw a lot and briefly created cartoons with my friend, Chris, yet we kept them largely private after other middle school students mocked our efforts. The same was true for another classmate who was really into anime, as his drawings and interest were often the subject of ridicule for no reason other than kids trying to demonstrate power via mockery.

For some reason, continuing to like things in adolescence and adulthood that one did when young is often deemed to be "immature," with the concept of silliness becoming a negative rather than a positive. There is a sense of irony when this notion was applied to things like animation, as it was totally cool to watch The Simpsons, but silly or pointless to enjoy anime or Disney films. The feeling that one should be obligated to "grow out" of things is one that has simply not ever fully made sense to me, although I was also always multiple steps behind most peers in terms of social dynamics and struggled to glean the point of most trends, so that was likely to always be the case. However, if someone likes something that brings them joy - however "silly" it may be - and it is in no way harmful to others, shouldn't that be celebrated rather than shamed? The elementary school kids that I taught lit up when given the opportunity to draw creative pictures or talk about their cats. The same was true for my summer 19-U team, which occasionally spent batting practice claiming that they were the San Diego Padres' infield of Hosmer/Kinsler/Machado/Tatis. Why were a bunch of Varsity-level players and college students pretending that they were players on a major league team that plays clear across the country? Who knows, but it was silly and fun and funny and great.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When initially starting this blog, I reached out to Chris from Nachos Grande, as he was reprising his "Better Know a Blogger" series that provided some background information on many of the individuals whose sites I had read for a while. Similar to my reticence to reach out to Tom, it took a bit of self-encouragement for me to get the gumption to ask if I, someone whose had barely established this current blog, could participate in the series. Thankfully, Chris, like pretty much all of the other bloggers with whom I have engaged, was extremely welcoming and noted that letting someone introduce themselves to the online community was something for which he had hoped that the series could do. I think that the ensuing interview went pretty well, too, and I appreciated the kind comments at the end.

Shortly afterwards, I contacted Chris about setting up a potential trade, as I had quite a few cards that he needed for a variety of set builds and other collections that he was assembling. A swap was quickly okayed and it was once again fun to see just how many cards I could find that would hopefully be of help. Chris' return package arrived earlier this week and most definitely fits this blog post's theme of silliness being awesome, beginning with the neat blog sticker that was included in which Nachos Grande is preceded by the tagline "Baseball and Cards at their cheesiest."

Chris noted that he was not able to find a lot of individual cards of players that I collect, which is not a surprise given that I have fewer current "favorite" players, particularly major stars, than most folks seem to (I have added a secondary list to my trade page of players that I like, but may not wind up actively collecting). However, in addition to the cards that he was able to find, Chris included a variety of packs that he hoped that I would enjoy opening and that was certainly the case. Between the bevy of illustrated cards (none of which I previously had), multiple Scottie Pippen cards, a Dream Team era Michael Jordan, and rookie cards of notable players like Carlos Carrasco, Randy Johnson, and Rafael Palmeiro, there was a lot of fun stuff to be found. I found the art card featuring Manute Bol to be particularly silly, as the expression on his face and pose are certainly a departure from many of the illustrated cards that one saw at the time. Given that Bol stood 7'7" and sports card are typically 2.5" x 3.5", it feels like poor Manute is being crammed inside a box that is far too small (similar to when he was forced to sit on courtside seats that were too short for his frame).

Included in the individual cards that Chris was able to find was my first card of Colin Kaepernick, one in which he is depicted wearing a San Francisco Giants cap rather than anything related to football. That is pretty silly. However, nothing matches the silliness of the very shiny Edgardo Alfonzo jersey card that is pictured at the outset of this post. Coming from Topps' partnership with Bazooka, it is probably to be expected that inserts would be fairly offbeat and this certainly fits the bill. Between the cartoon body, the description of a performance from when Alfonzo was a Met (rather than a Giant, with whom he is pictured), and the fact that Alfonzo's facial expression does not match the level of excitement indicated by the quip within his cartoon text bubble, everything about the card is silly. And great. Thanks again for the trade, Chris!