Ping Pong

 British manufacturer J. Jaques & Sons, Ltd. trademarked the name "Ping Pong" in 1901.  It was in reference to the game we also know as table tennis, which had apparently been developed in Victorian England.

Ping Pong was an important element in the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and China in the 1970s.  First, American and Chinese players competed against each other at the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan.  Afterward, the U.S. team received an invitation to visit China.  Later that same year, President Richard M. Nixon visited China as well.

Ping Pong became an Olympic sport in 1988 at the games in South Korea.  Chinese men have won six of the last seven Olympic gold medals in singles competition.  Chinese women have won all nine of the Olympic gold medals in singles competition.

Sometime prior to 1956, my family acquired a Ping Pong table my brothers and I played on in the basement of our home at 30 East Oneida Street.  We continued playing Ping Pong when we moved to the west side of Oswego.

I remember playing Ping Pong many times with my older brother Paul (7 years my senior).  He beat me every time.

I asked him to let me win...once.  He declined, saying that some day I would win and that victory would be earned.  I finally did win.

In 1958, I won the Mohawk Unit (two cabins of about 16 boys my age-13) Ping Pong championship at Camp Eagle Cove.  The following year, I was in the finals of the Siwonoy Lodge (about a dozen or more 14 year-olds) championship.  

My opponent and I were tied at two games apiece.  I was winning the fifth and deciding game, 19-16.  My opponent would be serving the next five points.  I needed two out of five to win the title.  One out of five would have created a tie (at 20) and we would have continued playing until someone was ahead by two points.  However, I lost all five of his serves and the championship, 19-21.

In August 1974 I returned to Camp Eagle Cove on a visit.  I found my name on a banner as ping pong champion in 1958.  I wonder where that banner is today.  The camp closed in 1993.

When my son Bret was a teenager, I bought a Ping Pong table for him in our basement at 69-43 Cloverdale Blvd.  At first, I beat my son every time.  Then, after a while, he beat me every time.  I haven't played Ping Pong in years.