Memory Day: Crew

Thirty years ago today, on March 1, 1993, it was the first day of spring crew in the Alexandria City Public School system.

The first week of crew was always the worst -- in that awkward weather armpit where the river is frigid and the rain briefly turns to snow several times per storm. It was the perfect beginning for a sport that I never truly enjoyed, and really only did because it seemed inevitable. I grew up hearing people constantly say, "You're so small! You should be a coxswain!" so it was probably easier to go along with it than buck the trend.

In 1993, I was a freshman coxswain starting my second season of crew. Owing to the "junior high" system, where freshmen were at the top of 7th-8th-9th, rather than the bottom of 9th-12th, we had to trek all the way across the city to get to the boathouse on the Potomac River. School got out somewhere around 2:30, the activity bus lollygagged through the projects in Old Town and dumped us at the boathouse around 3:15, and then we had to wait for the high schoolers to get out of school and arrive near 4:00. After a vigorous 1.5 - 2 hours of practice, the activity bus took us back across the city in rush hour traffic at 6:00. Bus drivers didn't get paid after 6:30, so if we hadn't gotten all the way to our designated stops, they'd just dump us out on the side of the road and we'd walk the rest of the way home. Some nights I didn't get home until after 7!

There were a few small perks to the slog, like my friendship with Jack (who I still see somewhat regularly) and girls in unitards. And on the 2 days of there year with actually decent weather, when high tide hid all of the poisoned fish and the stench from the sewage treatment plant was carried away on the west wind, it was nice being in a boat on the water. Still, if I had it all to do over again as a modern student, I'd look for the nearest eSports competitive team instead.