It’s been so long since I’ve been to a tournament that I
think I’m forgetting how to do it. I’m not sure who to bark at and who to be
nice to. The next couple of weeks should change all that.
I look back fondly on Bigle X, a tournament I’ve attended at
least 20 times in a row. I can recall when I would pack a big bus of Sailors,
and how said bus would have to stay on all night to keep the diesel from
freezing (or something: the drivers would tell me stuff and I would nod sagely,
much like anyone in my house fixing the electricity or the plumbing who will be
talking to me as if I have a clue about their specialty, and I always think to
myself, when the guy comes into my office to hang a picture or something I
never start telling him all the ins and outs of editing books, and I certainly
never ask for his okay, so why do some of these people expect me to conspire
with them on their highly technical jobs that I’ve invited them into my house
to perform precisely because I haven’t a clue how to do it myself). We would
fill that bus to overflowing; indeed, a second bus would go up to the Holy
Cross speech tournament in Worcester on the same weekend, yellow ships passing
in the night. I guess you could say that I singlehandedly reduced the number of
forensics Sailors down to virtually none over the course of my coaching career, come to think of it. Anyhow, we won
that tournament a bunch of times, and then there was the round robin for a
while, which was always a lot of fun because it was loosey goosey and there was
this break that we filled one year with a trivia contest, and Bean Trivia was
born, another native Massachusetts treat like beans and cream pie and saving
money by not pronouncing the letter R. There has been a steady parade of Lexwegian TDs over
the years, but the tournament has remained mostly the same: big and strong. For
a while I was tabbing PF or NLD and looking over longingly at JV and Kaz as they
did the big boy VLD stuff, mit schlag, so to speak, when MJP was tossed into
the mix. One thing about MJP: it gives you something to think about when you’re
pairing, especially back in the bad old TRPC days, when you had to do most of
the heavy lifting yourself. Tabroom makes it much easier, warrant enough, if
such is needed at this late date, to use the program. Anyhow, when Kaz took
over the program she cleverly stopped tabbing (only a fool tabs his or her own
tournament) and I moved into her spot with JV. Which, as it turns out, is one
of the few times he and I work together all year on the same division. Usually
we split tournaments down the middle, him taking the IEs and me taking the
debate divisions. I think we make a good team. He can do all the math in his head and I can find the yodeling songs on my iPod with my eyes closed. Frick and Frack in the proverbial nutshell, eh?
So, Bigle X is something to look forward to, both for its
meaning over the years, and its enjoyment now. I might even get to touch the
hem of CP’s garment for a minute or two, although we’ll be in separate buildings.
He being completely on a different track these days from the old traveling tab
room makes him most elusive. The best I can usually hope for is to swap insults
on Facebook.
Lexington, here we come!
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