After Colts vs. Steelers

The large and sleepy UNM Lobo who has been living in my house the past month and I were watching NFL football. He was watching. I was doing the NYTimes crossword puzzle. We were watching people coming and going at the realtor's open house next door. We were psyching up to go to the mall to exchange a pair of jeans for a smaller size (so you know they weren't my jeans).

After the wild ending to the game, the Lobo began channel surfing because he is a male. Fortunately before he found billiards on tv, he found the 2005 USA Jump Rope National Championships from Orlando, Florida, on ESPN2. We both stared slack-jawed at the synchronized performance of amazing stunts in the pairs competition. Then we started laughing until I had tears running down my cheeks. Tried calling my dad and my sister. Seemed like this was worth sharing. We watched highlights of the jump rope relays, double dutch, and the small group with musical accompaniment competitions.

This was not just hilarious. It required impressive stamina, coordination, cooperation, and about five bucks of equipment. Competitive rope jumping is way more exciting than that Olympic sport of rhythmic gymnastics.

Reading The Berenstain Bears and the In Crowd to my little sons was the first I learned of Double Dutch jumping. Thought it was a Wrigley's Doublemint Chewing Gum version of my personal best in rope-skipping, circa 1964:

I'm a little Dutch girl dressed in blue,
Here are the things I like to do.
Salute the Captain,
Curtsy to the queen,
Turn my back on the mean old king!

I've been googling about jumping rope and the development of competitive Double Dutch.

Check out these video clips and jump rope rhymes, as well as the XBox 360 ad.




Wondering how I can see "I Was Made to Love Her", an award-winning documentary by Nicole Franklin about the Double Dutch Divas...."In it we see energetic women of all ages whose teamwork and love for one another keep them together through thick and thin... And interviews... examine the Double Dutch phenomenon...Winner, Best Documentary, Atlanta’s Night of the Black Independents Film Festival, 2000, Best African-American Documentary, Brooklyn Film Festival, 2000, CiNY Award, Outstanding Filmmaking, CINEwomen, NY, 2001, Best Documentary, Hollywood Black Film Festival, 2001, Gordon Parks Award Finalist for Directing a Feature Documentary, N.Y., 2000."


It's two, two, two mints in one!

Double your pleasure, double your fun,
With Doublemint, Doublemint, chewing gum!