How did your essay develop, both in your initial thinking about it and in the revision process? What happened in writing that you didn't expect would happen?

Basically, when I went into work on the Monday after the game, my friends made the mistake of asking me if I'd had a good weekend. Never one for mere pleasantries and simple answers, I told them more than they wanted to hear about how an old guy on the verge of codgerhood outfoxed a couple of young bucks on the basketball court the previous Friday. I'd had a darned good weekend, in other words, and I practically re-enacted the whole thing right there in the hallway. Thus, the essay began orally.

I got to recalling other games I'd played in, some of which had taken place eons ago. That in turn got me to thinking about the changes my body was going through and about the pleasures of athletic competition, pleasures I had long taken for granted but which I could foresee coming to an end. Heck, not since I was 13 had I been so aware of how my body was changing. With this jumble of thoughts in my mind, I decided to write about the game in my writer's journal. In my journal, I just jot down and explore whatever it is I'm thinking about.

I began with a sort of free write where I just tried to tell the story of the game itself. As other memories and ideas came to mind I recorded them, too. This process gave me a rough draft to play with. I then began to think about how I had told the story out loud. I would tell it one way to one person and another way to someone else, emphasizing one fact to this person and another fact to someone else. I imagined how I might yet tell the story to diverse people who hadn't heard it yet.

In this way, I began to imagine the story's possibilities and to develop a voice for the piece. I began rewriting the draft, throwing out all the junk, keeping the stuff that seemed to work, and occasionally seeing a new idea. Since I have a job that keeps me busy and since I'm always working on three or four projects, I would set the story aside, sometimes for months at a time, before going back to it.

Meanwhile, I took a summer trip to Mexico. When I returned, the basketball nets and backboards had been taken down. I figured it was for repairs. Later, the poles were removed, leaving only the court. Obviously we'd be getting new equipment, I thought. But when no new poles, backboards and nets went up I called the City of Galveston Parks and Recreation. No, there would be no new equipment, the court had been closed for good. "Why was it shut down?" I asked. The court was closed because, gosh darn it, folks were playing on that court from the time school let out until sundown every day of the week. I noted my confusion and tried to outline the pretzel logic: You build a basketball court for people to play on but then when people play on it you close it down precisely because people were playing on it. I didn't get it. That's when I was told it was a matter of "who" was playing on it. Then I got it. Then I understood the full significance of the basketball court by the yacht club and of the pick-up game I had played in.

With this new grasp, I revised the story yet again, emphasizing the distinct personalities and the nature of the subtle relationships. Four strangers, totally different from one another, could come together and enjoy a basic camaraderie. What I experienced, what we experienced, was a warmth and goodnaturedness among strangers. At that realization I was jolted; what shocked me was that warmth and goodnaturedness among strangers stand out precisely because these days such qualities among strangers are the exception rather than the commonplace rule. I had to make certain that in my final draft of the essay, a set of relationships which seemed simple and ephemeral would resonate as deeply for my readers as it had for me.

I debated a long time about the post script. It clearly didn't belong within the story, yet the real meanings of this chance encounter, of this temporary community, took on richness and complexity and nuance when the information communicated in the post script was included. So I decided the post script was essential to the piece and kept it in.

Voila! Essay completed.