As parents, we are always wondering what impact we are having and have had on our children. I had a recent experience that illustrated to me just how important we are as parents.
While living in Texas, I would attend the local fencing tournaments in and around Dallas. At these tournaments, you see the usual suspects and you don’t give much thought to where someone is from. However, there are really just three areas that are strong in fencing in Texas:
Dallas area
Austin (and San Antonio) area
Houston area
Someone came up with the bright idea of having a “Braggin’ Rights” Fencing Tournament in some neutral place. We looked at the map and chose the little town of Calvert for its smallness, neutrality and same driving distance for all of us.
Calvert is a tiny town and we just about took over the place. The tournament was in the High School Gym and was to be a two-day, three weapon (foil, epee, and saber) tournament. The winner (the highest finisher in all three weapons) was to receive a really cool ring to be designed and made by one of our fencers who was also a jeweler. This tournament was to determine the bragging rights for the next season, and to provide a party for all of us.
Lee, Phyllis, and I arrived on Friday night with the whole crew and Saturday was the foil and saber tournaments. In my little brain, even though I had been officially retired from competitive fencing for many years, I still thought I could come away with a ring, if I worked this right. By the end of Saturday, that thought was not very prominent in my brain, as I didn’t make the finals in my preferred weapon (foil), nor in my OK weapon (Saber). But we were all having a good time. Fencers tend to have a good time.
We all went to dinner together to continue the good time and people started to add up points to determine if anyone besides the winner of the Saber tournament (as I remember it was a teacher named Scott Clark who later moved to near Abilene, my home town) could possibly win the ring. Because most people only fence one weapon, it seemed Scott had a lock on the ring. As an academic exercise we were looking at everyone for their chances to win. I started looking at the point system and determined that:
If Scott didn’t make the finals in Epee on Sunday
If I won the epee tournament
Scott and I would be tied in points for “The Ring”
Now the whole crowd starts getting into the possibility. No one wants a runaway. Now it starts to get interesting. Lots of whispering and taunting.
The next day, the whispering and taunting continues and gets louder. Now people have a reason to watch the epee. People pick whom they want to win and got really vocal when we were fencing. Scott and I fenced in one of the pools and because I beat him, he was eliminated and did not make the finals. The first “if” is done.
Now everyone in the room is getting into the whispering and taunting and yelling for some excitement.
I was doing pretty well in the epee finals (epee is not my preferred weapon) and the whole tournament came down to my final bout with a “real” epee fencer. A real epee fencer is a tall skinny dude that has cat like reflexes and the patience of Jobe. I’m not a real epee fencer. I want to kill something. If I win this bout, Scott and I are tied in points and we must fence off for the ring.
In a tournament like this (3 weapon), a fence off is done like this:
Both fencers pick a weapon to fence
If you both pick the same weapon (say foil) you fence that weapon: foil
If you each pick a different weapon (say foil and saber), you fence the other weapon: epee
This is a total head trip, as, “do I pick the weapon I want and hope he picks it, or do I assume he is going to pick the third weapon, so we can fence his preferred weapon, or will he think I’m doing that, or………..”. It gets complicated.
My bout with Mr. Epee was very close. We were fencing to five (5) touches and the score was 4-4. The next touch decided, not only the epee tournament, but if there was going to be a fence-off for “The Ring”. Now everyone has picked a side. They were yelling and discussing strategy for the fence-off and it was getting louder in the High School Gym. Everyone was into it.
Mr. Epee got the last touch, I took 2nd place, and the Braggin’ Right were determined. Recently, I was telling this story in front of my now grown son (at the time of the tournament I guess he was about 6 years old). He listened to the story quietly, and I asked him if he remembered that weekend in Calvert.
He said, “Yes, I do remember it.” Although I now realize I should have been quiet at this point, I asked him what, exactly, he remembered about that exciting weekend. He replied, “I remember they had a gravel parking lot.”
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Originally Posted by theLuz 
