Would you be surprised to know that during the Gilded Age in America, the number one sport wasn’t baseball or football but watching competitive walking in arenas? This was very new to me and became a conversation topic in social settings for a while. But then again I’m always intrigued by random new stories.
“Tony, you are easily distracted by shiny objects!” my consulting work colleague jokingly exclaimed as I shared yet another random story. She was just like me though and easily distracted. So, we made an agreement that if we were ever in meetings or co-facilitating events and one of us was going off on a tangent the other person would quietly whisper “shiny object” to bring us back on topic. I still use that with my internal voice many years later to get back on topic. But sometimes those “shiny objects” are interesting or entertaining subjects that have value in the right place and time. So, I’d like to experiment with some brief posts here I’m calling “Shiny Objects” to share these random musings with my readers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I love to share stories and random trivia, history, pop culture and more. This bit of history about competitive walking was completely new to me until a good friend shared an article on social media months ago about Frank Hart. He became one of the United States’s first Black sports stars in the sport of competitive walking, a sport I had never heard of before. I read the article, did some research and purchased the book Pedestrianism to learn more. It’s a fascinating subject and I encourage you to read the article (linked below) and check out the book or other resources if interested to learn more about this fascinating bit of sports history. And that’s your shiny object for today. Message me with any of your own personal stories and shiny objects. I love to hear them, and as always Your Story Matters.
