The Pole Vaulter Story

This is another Lunch Break Story  I had heard once during my career as a Painter.

The hapless Pole Vaulter in the story reminded me of myself, and still does, with respect to my lofty ambitions at one time, compared to being truly skewered now by Student Loans.

All of my own doing of course.

                                                  
                         THE POLE VAULTER STORY

……….and then there was this guy you know, he was a pole vaulter. I used to do quite a bit of it in High School myself.
Anyway this guy was a pole vaulter on some track team somewhere…I don’t even think he was any very good but he was um…I’m not even really sure if this story is true…I might have dreamed it or somethin’, I don’t know.

But this guy was pole vaulting and he went up…he went up in the air like this….he was doing a- uh--,a vault, and the vault was way too high for his skill level…….something crazy, like a world record or something he was trying for, and the poles—you know how they flex---well the pole snapped.

“Whoa!” I gasped.

Yeah the poles are fiberglass, and they’re supposed to bend you know? But the guy uh…..he must have been doing it wrong and the pole snaps in two while he was still up in the air, you know, in the middle of this jump…….

…….and as he came down he got skewered right onto a half of the pole.

“Impaled?” You mean like…….

“Yeah, exactly, speared like a……like a……

“Like a Shish Kabob” I said.

“Yeah, exactly. Like a Shish Kabob.”

We both laughed.