The Handmade Court | Ecotone - Fall/Winter 2006

The Handmade Court | Gary Fincke

Perhaps because I was a baseball player, I was never really any good at tennis.  When striking the ball, I always rolled my wrists, as if I were swinging a bat.  The ball either smacked into the net or sailed well beyond the court.  I knew plenty of people who played, but it wasn't my bag.

And, similar to Gary Fincke, I wasn't enamored with manual labor when I was fourteen years old.

This humorous gem of an essay is about the single-mindedness of Mr. Fincke's father to build a tennis court on a remote piece of Pennsylvania property that initially appears flat and thick with clay, perfect for tennis.  It's also about Mr. Fincke's summer of tennis tournaments and fact that he was in a bit over his head.  He complains of cheap rackets, out of style clothing, the wrong shoes and parents not properly dressed for the venues, but what he knows, and what goes unsaid, is that his father bought land to build him a tennis court.  Maybe that is why they didn't have a lot of extra money to buy dinner jackets and expensive rackets.

The essay captures teen boredom with physical labor and our youthful fantasies of success.  Then it ends with the young Mr. Fincke pragmatically assessing how long the court will survive a rainy period and plotting on the best way to beat his old man.