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.

Click here to open a PDF transcript.

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