Preacher’s Bleachers

In the gymnasium of our church there is a large set of aluminum bleachers. They are leftovers from the time when there were rivalries between Christian schools in the area. Basketball and volleyball were the indoor autumn and winter sports. The size of our gymnasium is tight with just a narrow margin of free space around the edges, but at one end of the gum it is much wider to house a large, six tier set of aluminum seats and risers. They’ve dominated the one end of the court since the gymnasium was built.

Like most bleachers, they are not built for comfort but with stomping feet, they became a loud noisemaker used to support our teams, the Mt. Zion Lions. The sound would reverb in the cavernous space of the gym. It was often very intimidating for the opposing team. I remember one game that we suppressed the noise when a member of the opposing team had hearing sensitivities.

Other noisemakers that our crowd used were cow bells, stadium horns, and even pounding on the wood paneling walls. The gymnasium became quite a raucous place.

The bleachers take up quite a large area at times when space is needed. There have been many ways that people have tried to disguise their monstrous form in a wedding reception, spring and winter banquets, and other occasions when the bleachers weren’t necessary and didn’t go with the décor of the event. Attempts to camouflage them were with curtains, cardboard buildings, or with various and sundry means did lessen the impact of the massive silver monster, but it still lurked like a pig beneath the makeup. It’s never easy to make an elephant in the room completely disappear.

The church kids who now play games in the gym have slid into the aluminum beast on occasion. Injuries ranging from cuts and scrapes to a broken bone have occurred. The sharp corners and hard edges must not be Christian. They aren’t very forgiving and offer little comfort to the child who might slide into it, fall on it, or is climbing on the Matterhorn of metal.

Wednesday evening, after another scraped elbow, I suggested that we either sell the bleachers since we no longer have the competitive games where seating needed to possible trading them for something more useful. The memories that they hold would still fill that space, but it may be time for the bleachers to go to the scrap yards of history.