Well, let me tell ya, volleyball, that’s a game folks like to play, ain’t it? It ain’t just somethin’ for them city slickers. We played it back in the day, though our games weren’t nothin’ like them fancy ones you see on TV. We just hit the ball over the rope, didn’t have no fancy nets or rules.
But now, them rules, they’re somethin’ else. I heard they changed ’em all the time back then. One time they’d say you need 21 points, then another time they’d say 15. And the players, well, they settled on six a side, seems like a good number, not too crowded, not too empty. Most games, they last an hour, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. You know, just long enough to get a good sweat going, but not so long you’re missin’ supper.
Now, I heard tell of a volleyball game, the longest volleyball game ever, that went on longer than anything I could ever imagine. They say it was played over in some place called the Netherlands, sounded foreign to me. Folks there, they played that game for 85 hours! Can you believe that? 85 hours! That’s more than three whole days! They started playin’ on December 27th, right around Christmas time. I guess they didn’t have nothin’ better to do, huh?
I ain’t sure how many points they got, or how many sets they played, but it must have been a whole heap of ’em. Someone said it was 63 games and 137 sets, that’s a powerful lot of volleyball if you ask me. I reckon they must have been takin’ breaks to eat and sleep, maybe even sneak in a nap or two. But 85 hours, that’s just somethin’ else.
- Imagine playin’ volleyball for that long! Your arms would be tired, your legs would be achin’, and your eyes would be cross-eyed from watchin’ that ball go back and forth.
- And think about the folks watchin’. They must have been bringin’ in whole picnics, maybe even settin’ up tents to sleep in. It’d be like a whole festival, just for watchin’ volleyball.
I heard tell about them fast serves too, folks hittin’ that ball like a rocket. But this game, this long game, it wasn’t about speed, I don’t reckon. It was about keepin’ goin’, about not givin’ up. That’s what they call grit nowdays I think, young folks always makin’ up new words.
They got all sorts of championships and games now, even for the young’uns. “Youth Olympic Games” they call ’em. And there’s championships for men, all different ages too. They got records for all sorts of things, indoors, outdoors, you name it. But that 85-hour game, that’s a record that’s gonna be hard to beat.
Volleyball, it’s changed a lot since I was a youngster. But the spirit of the game, that’s still the same I reckon. Folks gettin’ together, havin’ some fun, and tryin’ to win, even if it takes ’em 85 hours to do it. I tell you what, if I was younger, I might have even tried to watch that game, just to see how long they could go. But these days, I’d much rather be sittin’ on my porch, sippin’ some iced tea and watchin’ the birds.
But that game in the Netherlands, that’s somethin’ to talk about alright. The longest volleyball game ever, 85 hours. Makes you wonder what they were thinkin’, but hey, folks do strange things sometimes, you can’t argue with that. Makes for a good story though, doesn’t it?
