By Jim Hagarty
It’s been a while since I made a muscle. I am probably afraid to try. Body parts don’t co-operate like they used to, it seems. The longterm effects would have to be considered.
When I was a boy, it was a game and an important test for a boy to make a muscle. To extend your arm, thrust your first in the air, and squeeze with all your will and might to make the muscle in your upper arm pop.
I don’t know who we were all trying to emulate. Maybe prize fighters, maybe hockey players. But your progress as a boy becoming a man depended on the size of the muscle bulge you could muster.
Most of us couldn’t make a muscle very well. The muscles we made were puny but to us, they were impressive. Sometimes we would stand in front of our mirrors and even do a double muscle. Both arms at the same time.
It was not uncommon for someone to come up to you and command, “Show us your muscle!” So you did. It helped if there were some girls around to witness the event and muscle grew in direct proportion to number of female spectators. Funny thing, now that I think of it. The girls never seemed to make a muscle. I wonder if they could.
Of course, there were the star muscle makers lurking about. And even the puniest among us had no trouble going up to those well-endowed boys and asking them to show us their muscles. I believe “wow” was the appropriate response. We weren’t jealous. We just wanted to be like those guys one day. It helped to get a good look at what we were striving for.
I wonder if kids today are still out there making muscles.
I hope they are.
