'The guy with the plastic hat'

By Ed Piper

It's pretty funny. I really enjoyed it.

For the past three school days, I have been substitute-teaching in physical education at an area middle school. For two days, I wore my new red plastic Angels batting helmet. On the third day, to show the first group of classes I taught on Thurs., March 1 (the even-numbered periods) a different look, I have sported my blue Dodgers helmet.

I got these when I bought Loaded Helmet Nachos at their respective ballparks at Spring Training in Arizona last week.

"I like your hat," several students have told me each day.

"What's it for?" I asked them and other students in my sixth grade P.E. classes, where we are playing flag football, riding stationary bikes, rotating among weight stations, and running laps.

"Ice cream," have answered numerous students. "Dipping Dots," say others. They've bought the treats in mini helmets at Petco Park and elsewhere.

I laughed. "Yeah, but where did the helmets at the ballpark come from originally?" I queried.

One girl said, "To protect your head from the sun." I replied, "I don't think so."

In one class, only one student of 40 in the P.E. class, standing on their roll call and warm-up numbers, could tell me, "It's to protect your head while you're batting so the pitcher doesn't hit you in the head."

Walking down the halls, I enjoy a sort of celebrity status with the helmets. Students would compliment me as they passed.

One student referred to me to another substitute teacher Thursday, the first day of my assignment, as "the guy with the plastic hat".

I told a full-time teacher on the boys side of P.E. about all the comments from the kids. He laughed and said, "You got your thing going."

At La Jolla High's baseball Alumni Game, Sat., March 3, where the red helmet fit in with the team's color scheme, JV coach Greg Volger chuckled with the remark, "It's about eight sizes too small for your head."