The Wildcats started practice this week.
Coach Albright used to say I could play for the team.
“You’ve got what it takes, Billie Jo.
Look at the size of those hands,” he’d say. “Look at
how tall.”
I’d tell him, “Just because I’m tall doesn’t mean I can
play basketball,
or even that I want to.”
But he’d say I should play anyway.
Coach Albright didn’t say anything to me about
basketball this year.
I haven’t gotten any shorter.
It’s because of my hands.
My father used to say, why not put those hands to
good use?
He doesn’t say anything about “those hands”
anymore.
Only Arley Wanderdale talks about them,
and how they could play piano again,
if I would only try.
November 1934