Re: Getting others into mud
Posted by LeviLovR on October 17, 2020 at 14:41:06
In Reply to: Re: Getting others into mud posted by Mudman on October 17, 2020 at 13:01:13:
When I first started going to Mud Bowl any one could jump in the mud. At half times usually kids went down to the mud and jumped in and played in the mud. I joined them one year, fully clothed of course, and the crowd loved it. Nobody knew who I was and the announcer started calling me the Unknown Mudder. I returned the next year and did it again and everyone started screaming "The Unknown Mudder" is back. A few other adults jumped in the mud as well. It was literally in the middle of the mud where I met my friend Tony, who was obviously as much of a mud freak as I was and we agreed we should form some kind of an act and the idea of synchronized mud swimming was born. It proved to be immensely popular, much more so than either one of us thought it would ever be and we became an annual feature. People would meet us on the street and ask when we were going in the mud as they had come just to see us perform.
So, to answer your question, Tony and I never knew how many people would perform with us. We always maintained that any one who wanted to join us in the mud was welcome to do so. The more people the better. We never rehearsed or planned what we were going to do. Either Tony or myself would yell out instructions: "Left Leg UP! Left Leg Down! Right Leg Up! Right Leg Down! Both Legs Up! Both Legs down! Form a Circle! Swim to the Center! Stand up, Join Hands, Fall Backwards. Kick and Splash! Swim to the Right! On Your stomach! Kick and Splash! Form a line and swim forward. On your back and swim backwards!" Whatever came into our minds.
We always tried to recruit people beforehand if possible. Most took a little convincing. We had some friends we had made there over the years that would join us occasionally. One year one of those friends approached us and said there was a teen age girl who wanted to do the act with us. She was a friend of her son and in his class. We said "fine". Her name was Desiree and she loved it so much that she became a regular in the act as well. She recruited her boyfriend to do it with us a couple of times. Sometimes we could get cheerleaders to join us, and occasionally even some of the actual players. One year a tv crew arrived from Korea. They did a tv show for children and the host of the show did the act with us and it appeared on his show. To sum up a few were eager, most were hesitant - at first. But once they had done it they all agreed it was incredible fun and not what they had expected. Some yearswe couldn't find anybody willing to join us and it would just be Tony and myself, or Tony, Desiree and me. Eventually Tony and Desiree stopped coming and I would often just roll around and dive in the mud by myself. Sometimes I could get some of the cheerleaders to join me. There was one set of cheerleaders, The Mudbassadors, who would do a routine (song and dance in the mud) and after they finished their routine would do synchronized swimming with me.
What really changed things was the year one of the players dove head first into the mud, broke his neck and became paralyzed. His family sued and Mud Bowl was changed forever. In fact it very nearly ceased to exist at all. It was totally restructured and reorganized. No more children or unauthorized people in the mud. I couldn't recruit just anyone to join me at the last minute, unless it was the cheerleaders, who were wonderful, but I couldn't always rely on them.
Sorry for the long narrative. I know I tend to be verbose. To some up just a few were eager, most were hesitant, all had a great time in the end. The comments afterwards were that they didn't know the mud felt like that and they didn't realize it would be so much fun.
I think you once said you had seen a video of the synchronized swim. I have seen photos of us but never an actual video, so I have no idea what it actually looked like. I know people really seemed to enjoy it, so it must have been ok. I know I had fun doing it, made a lot of friends and have some wonderful memories - all as a result of jumping in the mud so many years ago fully clothed. As they say, "he who hesitates is lost." So if you get the chance to either swim, or jump in mud, with all your clothes on DO IT! You never know where it might lead.