There Are Ping Pong Balls Above The Ceiling

The Royal Raleigh Rotters Wednesday Auxillary Football and Beer Sport Society climbed up to Horniblows after a recent Wednesday kick around, to find a rollicking band of ping pongers ponging happily in a very Rotter-like way. Yes, the kids are catching on.

This group of young pongers were paying no heed to the laws of table tennis or any other sport. Multiple bounces. Wall hits. Ceiling hits. Interrupting our pool game with insane errant shots. (We didn't mind one bit.) Like the hula hoop and methamphetamines, it's the latest craze sweeping the nation, if your nation is bars in industrial parks in north central Raleigh.

But, alas, their heedless ponging led to a pong tragedy. A rather large ponger stomped on the ball, rendering it a sad little flattish non-bouncing puck. The spirits of the young pongers were similarly crushed, until they remembered the bar and the beverages so freely dispensed there. Off they went, to continue being drunk in some other manner.

But, wait, a friendly little Horniblows gnome scampered into the Beer Sport Room, and bestowed upon Rotter left defenseman "The Lovely" Tobin an insider's Horniblows pong-related secret.

"There are ping pong balls above the ceiling," the kindly gnome whispered. And, with that, he disappeared into the meadow, or, he would have, if there was a meadow inside Horniblows.

In any case, (this is true) young Tobin climbed a chair and pushed upon a nicotine-soaked ceiling tile. And, like the obilisk at the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey, the ceiling was full of stars. Except the stars were ping pong balls. (Apparently hit up there by drunks when a ceiling tile was missing.) With great joy, young Tobin retreived a ping pong ball, and the Rotters commenced A-Pongin'. Oh Joy! Oh, thank you, friendly ping pong gnome!