Muscle Memory....

A few years ago I broke my wrist. One thing led to another.

I had played some tennis as a child and in the Air Force.

I didn't get serious about it until 1966, when I came to work on President Lyndon Baines Johnson's staff as a spreech writer.

For many years I played in a doubles game on Saturday and Sunday mornings on the clay courts of St. Alban's. Donna Shalala, the Secretary of Health & Human Services (on President Clinton's watch) and I were partners. My AEI colleague Norman Ornstein and Tom Mann of Brookings.

I took lessons from the legendary Allie Ritzenberg.

Tennis is great fun, and also Washington's great social net-working activity. The great and the near-great, the good players and the not-so good players periodically play in round-robin benefit tournaments.

(My moment of glory: I once jammed Gabriella Sabatini on a serve and she shanked the return. It stunned her. She was wide-eyed, and then laughed. She is a great, gracious and graceful player.)

I thought I was getting pretty good, perhaps 6 or so on a scale of 10 (maybe not that high.)

Anyway, today, the day after my 73rd birthday --- I played doubles again after a lapse of about three years.

Advancing age and some injuries had slowed me down some. My racket hadn't be re-strung in 4-5 years. There were no new tennis balls.

On Monday, I hope to take care of all that.

But the human muscle memory is almost unbelievable.

I remembered how to serve, poach, hit overheads, hit with spin etc.

I'm going to start playing again as often as I can.

Ben

But I didn't do so badly. A lady friend of mine and I won our match.