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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker
Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77713] Mon, 05 April 2021 08:39 Go to next message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

Likes it here
Location: USA Midwest
Registered: September 2015
Messages: 152



I really enjoyed this story.  The encouragement Troy gave Gary and others in the physical education (PE) class is the type of thing which is often needed by young teens.

I was mentally comparing this class, in the story, to PE classes I was in back in the last half of the 1960s.  We were required to have jocks and use them in my school, and we also had to take group showers after every class, five days a week.  So for four years, I had PE five days a week.  In that time, I never saw a boy get an erection.  But some guys were kidded for being very skinny or for having a big penis.  The girls in our school, I was told, also had to shower in groups.  Some of them complained about that.  We boys didn't complain about the showers-- until the hot and warm water ran out.  THEN we would complain.  With 30 to 40 guys sharing about 10 to 12 showers, the water was usually cold by the end of the short time we had to shower.

Some in the class would encourage others, as in this story.  Most guys were cooperative with each other.  Something we did besides wrestling, running, gymnastics, weight training, and assorted other exercises was something the coaches called "marine basketball."  It would probably be banned now as being too violent, but there were two basic rules besides trying to make baskets on the goal of your team.  Rule one: Don't kill, maim, bite, or hit someone in the testicles.  Rule two:  If you go out of bounds, get back in bounds.  You play fast and with all your energy until a coach blows the whistle.  Team with the most baskets is declared the winner.

The story is well written, well able to be believed, and well worth reading.  Well done, Cole Parker.
Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77723 is a reply to message #77713] Tue, 06 April 2021 18:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



Here's a link to the story:

http://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/cole/shorts/learning-th e-ropes.html


 
  I saw several erections over my high school years and only one uncircumcised cock. The ridicule was brutal in all cases. I did not participate and looking back I didn't speak up to end it either.

[Updated on: Tue, 06 April 2021 18:52]




“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77724 is a reply to message #77713] Tue, 06 April 2021 20:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cole parker is currently offline  cole parker

Toe is in the water
Location: California
Registered: July 2018
Messages: 34



Thanks, Bi-Guy.  This story was fun to write.  I love it when that happens.  Some of the challenge pictures just bring a story to mind that wants to write itself.  This was one of those. 

I had to climb ropes in gym a half century or more ago.  Didn't think I could at first.  With prctice got so I could do it without using my feet.  I felt awfully proud of that.

C
Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77727 is a reply to message #77723] Wed, 07 April 2021 02:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bisexual_Guy is currently offline  Bisexual_Guy

Likes it here
Location: USA Midwest
Registered: September 2015
Messages: 152



"Teddy wrote on Tue, 06 April 2021 18:48"
Here's a link to the story:

http://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/cole/shorts/learning-th e-ropes.html


 
  I saw several erections over my high school years and only one uncircumcised cock. The ridicule was brutal in all cases. I did not participate and looking back I didn't speak up to end it either.

--In the town where I was born, there were two doctors.  One tried to circumcise every baby boy, for the extra cash.  The other tried to talk parents out of circumcision, pointing out that it is an unnecessary operation.  So aboout half the boys in PE were uncumcised, and about half were circumcised.  Neither situation was considered remarkable.  

[Updated on: Wed, 07 April 2021 17:16]

Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77741 is a reply to message #77727] Fri, 09 April 2021 04:01 Go to previous messageGo to next message
ray2x is currently offline  ray2x

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 429



I wish I had a replay of middle and high school gym classes...somehow I missed out on taking in the view of several naked boys...their or my nakedness didn't seem to faze me...slow learner me...
icon12.gif Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77767 is a reply to message #77713] Wed, 21 April 2021 15:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Sean E is currently offline  Sean E

Getting started
Location: USA
Registered: September 2018
Messages: 13



Cole has been around forever - I remember reading his stuff during my early days of finding litterary work like this - and he always finds a unique, interesting way to take the simplest of ideas and flush them out. That is the sign of experience, and it is a sign of someone with both perception and relative deep-thinking characteristics. It is what makes his work stand out, I think - more so than others.

This particular tale I finally got around to reading earlier this week, and having finished it, I smiled. I could picture the scene, and imagine the appitude of the time he wrote about. My Jr. High and High School days didn't come until the 90's and early 2000's - and it was a much different envrionment by then. I don't think there are many schools left in America who do the shower thing anymore, and even in my time - showers were available if anyone wanted to use them, but nobody ever did. The mindset of being "in the buff" has so much more modesty-oriented animosity, I think, with teens these days, brought on by parents and other parts of society who think of it as a taboo to bare yourself under any circumstances - unless, of course, you're in sports... It wasn't always like this though, and reading this story reminded me of that. It was short and to the point, but at the same time, vivid enough to "see".

Teddy is right - at least in my time in school. The ridicule was indeed brutal, and anyone with non-sports / hunting / fishing / cars / girls attitudes was frowned upon very quickly. A few of us bookworms and science geeks, myself included (I refuse to call us nerds, because I do not identify myself as being such)(and yes, one of these days I just might write something that explains the difference and why!) were looked upon as strange, but at least we escaped the ridicule the others would get. I am sad, too, because although I escaped it, I did little to protect others from it, too...
Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77779 is a reply to message #77767] Thu, 22 April 2021 21:14 Go to previous messageGo to next message
cole parker is currently offline  cole parker

Toe is in the water
Location: California
Registered: July 2018
Messages: 34



Thanks for the kind words, Sean.  I guess it does seem I've been at this forever, but in truth I began writing in 2005.  Just never stopped, I guess.  The words aren't coming so facilely now, but it's still enjoyable work.

I remember in junior high school--we didn't call it middle school back then--that we did shower after gym, and when dressing after that, I heard an outcry, "He's got a boner," and it seemed the whole locker room rushed to see the poor guy.  I didn't.  I could imagine his embarrassment and didn't want to see it.

Wouldn't have minded seeing the boner, however.

C


Re: Learning the Ropes, by Cole Parker  [message #77780 is a reply to message #77779] Fri, 23 April 2021 02:11 Go to previous message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



"cole parker wrote on Thu, 22 April 2021 14:14"
Wouldn't have minded seeing the boner, however.


--
Hahaha! I don't know about y'all but while I generally don't go out specifically looking for boners, having a personal supply (supplier?) at home, I still don't mind seeing them and I'm not in Jr High anymore! LOL



“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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