Oral History Clip, "Maryetta and Claudia, Part 2 of 2", Maryetta Russell, Claudia Brick, and Marcia Schwemer, 2011/07/23
Brick: Yeah, uh-huh!
Russell: It was a hell of a shot.
Brick: It was a good one.
Russell: It was a hell of a throw.
[laughter]
Brick: I broke the catcher’s nose once, too.
Russell: Yeah.
Brick: I heard it break all the way in left field. It was a cut off play, and the pitcher and the ball–or, the pitcher ducked out, and the sun and the ball hit the catcher in the nose at the same time.
Russell: Yeah.
Brick: Oh well.
Russell: Took her down quick.
Brick: Well, she wasn’t that far from the ground.
[laughs]
Brick: She was only this tall.
Russell: We had a short catcher. We wanted a low center of gravity.
[laughter]
Interviewer: We were at a UCLA softball game–I have learned the rules of softball–
Brick: Excellent!
Interviewer: I may not know golf, but I do know softball now. I mean, all the strange ones, too! Like on the third strike–
Brick: The infield fly rule, and all that stuff?
Interviewer: That they get to run to first, all that. Oh, yeah! I sure was so embarrassed in the beginning.
Brick: Because you didn’t know–
Interviewer: I didn’t know when the game was over! I was like “Oh, I’m going to the trash,” and she goes “The game is over.” [laughs] But, uh–
[laughter]
Interviewer: The catcher–someone was stealing second, and she threw to second, and the pitcher didn’t duck.
Brick: Ooh, ow!
Interviewer: Oh yeah. Yeah. So it was jelly pitching. It hit her in the head. And it went–talk about going 40 feet in the air, it went straight up. It was a big thud, believe me, and she just went down like a ton of bricks.
Brick: Yeah, no kidding. Wow.
Interviewer: It was like, damn. I was like [whistles]. I think she was supposed to duck!
Brick: She was supposed to duck.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. I was like, well, whoa. And then she got up and wanted to keep pitching.
Brick: And they said, “what day is it?”
Interviewer: I know, because they actually let her pitch a couple, and then they pulled her out. I mean, she probably–I’m sure she had a concussion.
Brick: Oh, I’m sure.
Russell: Speaking of concussions–
Interviewer: Uh-huh?
Russell: One time, Claudia and I were in the outfield. It was like 9,000 degrees outside–
Brick: Hotter than [unclear]
Russell: And we just were pouring water on ourselves, and I was already dazed out, because I’m sure we must have had–we were close to, like, too much, too much sun–
Brick: Heatstroke and not enough water.
Russell: And I’d played like five games in one day, or something like that. So, Claudia and I are both going after the ball like this, and somehow –we never did this ever before or after–but somehow, Claudia caught me in the head with her shoulder, I think it was.
Brick: I think so, yeah.
Russell: We couldn’t really tell, but it was quite a little collision. And of course, I was the one that went flying because Claudia had like–
Brick: I had probably–
Both: Thirty pounds–
Russell: On me at the time.
Brick: I probably still do.
[laughs]
Brick: Or more.
Russell: Minimum.
[laughter]
Brick: You’re my friend Maryetta.
Russell: So I went down, rolled over a few times, and I got up and I remember that I literally did see stars. And Claudia, she caught the ball. Didn’t you catch it?
Brick: Probably.
Russell: I think you caught it. Yeah. I think you did catch it, threw it in, and then kind of turned to me like, “What’s up?”
Brick: And Maryetta was like, ”Oh.”
Russell: And I was kind of like, “Oh, my head.”
Brick: You know how in those old cartoons, there’s those little birdies flying around and stuff?
Russell: Oh man. It was bad, but I went back to my position, and I remember, kind of, the end of the game, but I really that was–I remember that, but it was like, the worst injury I ever had. And I’m sure I must have had a concussion because I was pretty much out of it, but we didn’t know a whole lot about concussions.
Brick: No, we didn’t know anything about that.
Interviewer: You were young and reckless.
Russell: That’s actually probably where I got my neck injury.
[laughs]
Brick: My fault.
Russell: Claudia did it to me when I was–
Brick: It’s my fault, I get it.
Russell: Claudia did it to me when I was 25.
Interviewer: Come to think of it–
Brick: Come to think of it, it’s all her fault.
Russell: Now that I think about it, I had a ruptured disk when I was 25. Claudia Brick was the cause of it.
[laughter]
Brick: That’s like me saying Kathy Zyarzynski’s responsible for my knee being screwed up.
Russell: She is.
Brick: Well, she is, but that’s yeah.
[laughs]
Brick: But again, that’s, you know, forty years ago or something.
[laughter]
Russell: So that’s it. We have lots of memories. Hopefully, we’ll keep them.
[laughter]
Brick: It’s a lucky thing you’re documenting this. We can come back and go, “Wow, that’s a great story!”
Interviewer: And then you’ll forget it, and you can watch it again and go, “Wow!”
Russell: Yeah. We maybe should have copies of this, just for our–just for our sake.
Brick: Well you know, she can download it into the computer before she goes.
Russell: Oh, good! Yeah, that’s good.
Interviewer: Okay.
Russell: So, I’m kinda done.
Brick: [unclear] for now.
Interviewer: You two are a hoot, I have to say.
Brick: We think we’re funny too, but we never had romantic inclinations towards each other–
Russell: No.
Brick: So, it’s good we didn’t wreck our friendship.
Interviewer: That’s how you didn’t wreck a friendship.
Brick: That’s right, we didn’t wreck our good friendship.
Russell: We didn’t wreck the friendship. We’re still–we’re at 39 years.
[laughter]
Russell: But I have kissed her before.
[kiss]
Brick: That’s right.
Interviewer: Oh, okay.
[END OF VIDEO]
Maryetta Russell and Claudia Brick discuss memorable moments during their time on the Lavender Menace softball team. Filmed July 2011.
Interviewee: Claudia Brick
Interviewee: Maryetta Russell
Interviewer: Unknown
Transcriber: Rachel P.
Transcriber: Mikhail Z.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: July 2011
Release Date: May 9, 2020
Location: Unknown
Interview Length: 00:04:43