4th of July, Personal Account and Experience

A lifetime of preparation did not prepare my family for our annual 4th of July Cup. Every year my family gets together and has a big dinner on the 4th of July, and usually as the meal is being prepared, the men go outside and get a soccer game going. This year was no different. It started out just like all the other games we had played.

Usually we take it nice and easy because when you get to be 40 years old you arent exactly in good shape. As the captain of my team, and the only one in shape, I set everyone up in their positions. The game began, and everything was going smooth until a new addition arrived on the other team. It was my cousins friend, Tim. Tim was in pretty good shape and since he had played high school soccer about 7 years ago he figured he would play with us. No one objected so Tim began to play too. So the game proceed nice and slow. My uncle had the ball and he began dribbling at Tim, well you either play light defense or you let the guy go bye. Well, Tim wanted to play by his own rules. When my Uncle Doug got beside Tim, who was dribbling the ball, Tim slid and tackled Doug from behind. Obviously Doug was upset. So he ran as fast as he could to catch up with Tim, but the thing about is Doug isnt exactly a small guy. Doug is 63 330 pounds so when he finally caught up Tim he just fell over and collapsed. Tim stopped and looked at Doug lying on the ground and began to laugh, as Tim laughed Ron stole the ball.

Tim was pissed, he didnt feel it was right to be double-teamed, but really he was just mad that he lost the ball. Tim was determined to steal the ball back. Tim ran at full speed to catch up with Ron, but as soon as he caught up with him, Ron just passed the ball off. Now John had the ball and when Tim approached him, he just passed off again. I had the ball now, so I began penetrating the defense. Then I passed the ball off to Ron. As soon as Tim caught up with Ron everyone heard a loud RRRPIiiiippppp. No one knew exactly what the sound was. The whole family stood motionless and looked around to see what the sound was. My uncle thought it might be a car that had wrecked down the street or maybe some kids letting off fireworks, but I didnt think so. Just as we were about to start playing soccer again Doug looked at Tim and noticed that Tim had ripped his pants. That was the sound that we heard. Instead of Doug keeping it to himself, Doug decided to get a little revenge on Tim for knocking him down and taking the ball. So Doug decided to announce to everyone that Tim had split his pants. It wasnt exactly a split but more like a huge whole that swallowed the little bit of pants that he had left. As Tim began walking to the house everyone began mocking him and the faster Tim walked the more his pants would rip.

Every 4th of July we still get together and play soccer, but I will never forget that year as long as I will live.