A Hulme Family Story

I spent last weekend with my family in Springfield.

We convened there in order to celebrate my little sister, Sarah's, birthday. I drove into Springfield tired and worn after my week in Little Rock and was met by my family who had already been there for several hours. My other little sister, Jessie, and her husband, the ever-accommodating Rich, recently moved to Springfield after their June wedding, and this was the first time we had all been there together. We had a great time of hanging out, eating delicious food, laughing, watching movies, and just being with each other, which is usually enough for all of us. We slept in late and then had brunch. After brunch, Rich suggested we all go to the park and play Ultimate Frisbee.

We stared at him in disbelief as one collective body of uncoordinated individuals.

My poor brother-in-law. He's such a great guy, very patient and loving and considerate, but he doesn't seem to know the Hulme family secret: we don't DO sports. Ever. I spoke up and said what a great idea, and let's do it! I, of course, was the last one ready to walk out the door. But walk out the door we did, armed with various frisbees and with our "game face" on.

As we pulled up to the park, we all noticed the playground. Swings!

Although our excitement for the game was momentarily overshadowed by the playground, we soon grew tired of that activity and began the game, which lasted for about ten minutes. I think the problem consisted in the fact that we didn't know how to play the game; "we" being the females of the family. Earlier, we had insisted that the game consist of boys against girls, and because the boys ultimately had no choice, that's how it ended up. Me, Jessie, Sarah, and Maggie, against Rich, Joel, Sam, and Joseph. I think another reason the game was so short-lived was because Rich is about two hundred feet taller than the rest of us. At one point I heard him say to Sam, "oh, let's just give them the point", this after the boys had scored three points and the girls still weren't sure which goal was ours.

It would have been funny if it weren't so sad.

The girls were the first to abandon ship. We straggled over to a tall tree and sprawled in it's plentiful shade. Rich and Sam (the most athletic Hulme) continued to toss the frisbee back and forth for a little while, but ultimately joined us, as did my mom and the dog, who had been off exploring the park grounds together. Jessie asked Rich if he was disappointed that we didn't play the game for very long (or very well, for that matter). Rich just smiled and said "I would have been disappointed if I had expected you to play".

Well, there you go.




The Hulme family, in all of our un-athletic glory. I still love us.