January 27, 2009
Friends' Weekly Pingpong Matches & Camaraderie Go Back Decades
Friends Pete Brethauer (from left), John Trotter, Ron Ebly, John Melster, Jim Kramer,
Tony Bryant and George Hillier meet and play pingpong on Saturdays through the
winter in Waukesha. They don’t eat or drink during the gathering — they just play ball.
Photo By: MaryJo Walick
Courtesy of Journal Sentinel - Wisconsin / By Laurel Walker
Jan. 24, 2009 - Six septuagenarians and 87-year-old John Melster gathered last Saturday as they do just about every Saturday through fall and winter, just as they've done for decades.
To play pingpong.
I was reminded once again why I never really took to the game. It's the constant bending, chasing that darned little white ball as it ricochets like a scampering mouse into tight corners of the basement.
This may explain why the gentlemen's waists were so trim and their joints still flexible.
One by one, the men arrived at Melster's Waukesha condo for an hour of some serious play: Ron Ebly, 75; John Trotter, 73; Tony Bryant, 78; Pete Brethauer, 70; George Hillier, 79; and Jim Kramer, 79. Most are retired or semi-retired businessmen from Waukesha, except Ebly, who's from Brookfield.
Sometimes there are more, usually fewer. But always they have at least four for their two-man teams and fast-paced matches.
No wives involved - this routine is a guy thing. The season runs from September through April, when golf course fairways and tennis courts beckon.
For the last half-dozen years or so, Melster's roomy basement has been Pingpong Central, but it all depends on who's got the space and the table at the time.
Ask them why they keep it up, and they all pretty much have the same answer.
"I like it," Ebly said. "I've always liked it. I played it all my life," partnering at first with his dad and uncles over an old plywood table crammed in the basement between the furnace and coal bin on 14th and Brown in Milwaukee.
Sure, the game elevates the heart rate, sharpens reflexes, tests hand-eye coordination, demands balance. Camaraderie and good-natured kibitzing seem a part of the routine among this bunch. They would all probably qualify as Type-A personalities, but their competitiveness doesn't turn cantankerous with every net ball or botched return.
"We just play because we like to play pingpong," Kramer said.
No food. No drink. No baloney.
Just nonstop pingpong, and when the hour's up, "we put on our coats and go home," Bryant said. "It's all business."
Now try and figure out when this clan began to gather for the Saturday sessions, and they all have a different answer. Each guesstimate is based on which house was home court when who played and where they lived.
Trotter, who said he started hosting the games in the 1970s, said, "It's the largest floating crap game in the world," going back perhaps 50 years. "But the geezers were dying off. It just evolved."
Someone would join. Someone would die. Someone would move away. Someone else would join.
"It was all attrition," Trotter said. Then replenishment.
Hillier, one of the most recent to join, said he's been playing pingpong since he was 10. He learned about the group while out for a walk one day during a neighborly conversation with Melster, and he asked if he could play.
"You're never too old to be young," he said.
Most often the games are close, but once someone gets to match point, who's counting?
They don't keep track of total wins and losses. There are no trophies, no notches on belts.
"We just have fun," Bryant said. "Nobody gets mad. Nobody argues."
If anything, it's more self-deprecation and compliment with an occasional tease back and forth, like the blur of a ball over the net.
"My usual cat-like reflexes didn't come into play that time," Brethauer said after one point lost.
"Beautiful shot, George," someone says, then a mere ping and a pong later, "That wasn't so beautiful."
While four play, the other three sit on the sidelines catching up on their lives or community. Then, as if on cue, they head out the door.
"About 2:15, we all go home and nap," Brethauer had said earlier.
Somehow, I doubted that.
Even so, they'd bounce back, again and again.
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