The Ping-Pong ball story

This was my all time favorite youth trip story. My friend Jaime told it to us when we were in 7^th grade and it was told to the new 6^th graders every year when we took a long bus ride. Then when we were in high school it became the new freshman story, and so on! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

So there was a doctor who had TONS of money. He had everything you could ever imagine in the world, cars, clothes, toys, houses, pets, you name it and he had it. I think he even had his own Periwinkle!! Just kidding, back to the story. The only thing he and his wife didn’t have was a child. They tried their whole marriage and just couldn’t have a child. They went to specialists, they tried adopting and it just didn’t happen.

One day, the doctor came home from the hospital and his wife met him at the door in tears! He tried to figure out what was wrong but she was absolutely hysterical!! Finally after like 20 minutes of gasping for air and hyperventilating she calmed down enough to tell the doctor to go into the guest bedroom. He did and was AMAZED at what he saw. In the corner of the room was a bassinette with a sleeping baby boy. He turned to see his wife standing in the doorway with a HUGE smile on her face. It seems that some lady came by and dropped him off with a note and then took off.

When the lady left the doctor’s wife had no idea what to do. She called the police and they connected her to CPS (child protective services). They told her that since she and the doctor were already on the list to adopt that they could complete the paperwork and adopt the boy! It was perfect, now they had their own baby son, Ben, to adore and spoil!!

The first few years of the child’s life were pretty uneventful. The normal pooping, eating and sleeping like any other baby. Then came walking and talking and potty training. This kid had nothing but the best from the start. Mom and Dad bought him everything imaginable. Then, on the boys second birthday something weird happened, he actually started to ask for birthday presents! Now, that doesn’t sound super weird, but at two you normally don’t care what you get. Well Ben did, and his request was so weird that his dad was worried for weeks before his birthday. He was ready to buy Ben a bike, or a toy tool set or something normal. Well, as we are about to see, Ben was no ordinary kid.

Present time came at Ben’s birthday and he saved his dads present for last. When he opened up and saw that his dad had given him the perfect gift he was SOOOOOOO happy. The rest of the guests were confused but Ben loved it. What was it you must be asking yourself? It was 100 ping-pong balls!! Nobody knew why and Ben didn’t give an answer when his dad asked but he loved his ping-pong balls.

He got home and ignored the rest of his toys and just sat in his room staring at those ping-pong balls. He never took them out of the plastic boxes, and never took them off the shelf; he just sat and stared for hours on end. After a few months the doctor and his wife were nervous, seeing that Ben wasn’t like any other kid. The psychiatrist said there was nothing to worry about, some kids are just daydreamers and that they, as good parents, should support him in his ping-pong ball fascination.

So on they went for a few years until they completely got used to it. Birthdays 3,4,5,6, and 7 came and went and each year he asked for the same thing, 100 ping-pong balls. Now keep in mind, he never played with them, never even got other balls to actually play ping pong with! He just sat and stared at them and loved every minute of it.

Then one day, about a week before his 8^th birthday he went into his dad’s office and said that he needed to talk to him about his present. FINALLY, his dad thought, I am finally going to find out what is going on with these stupid ping-pong balls!! Ben sat down and said, “Dad, I think I need more ping pong balls”. His dad was floored!!! MORE PING PONG BALLS!!!! He already had over 500 just sitting on his dresser. They actually had to buy another shelf to put in his closet to store them all. This was ridiculous. Ben’s dad could barely even talk but managed to ask him what he meant. Ben told him that he felt like he should get more ping-pong balls every year because he was getting older. Since you should always get bigger and more expensive presents every year, he wanted more ping-pong balls with every birthday.

So, for his eighth birthday Ben got 150 ping-pong balls instead of his usual 100. Now he was the happiest kid ever. Sure, he had no friends, the housekeeper avoided him, and even his cousins and grandparents thought he was weird. None of this mattered to Ben; he was content with his ping-pong balls. Year after year his dad kept buying more and more ping-pong balls, 200 on his 9^th birthday, 300 on his 10^th, 400 on his 11^th, 500 on his 12^th. Now he was really getting a collection going. His dad was still worried but his mom never said a word about it. She was just content to see her boy happy.

One day, Ben’s dad thought, “maybe these things are worth money like baseball cards and the kid is making a great investment for himself”? Well, he googled it, sent email requests, and even asked the guy at the sporting goods store. All he got was a bunch of crazy looks and laughs. “Whatever, I am done trying to figure this guy out,” his dad thought. From then on he never questioned Ben again, he just made his yearly trip to the sporting goods store where everyone just pointed and stared as he bought hundreds of ping-pong balls at a time.

All through Jr. High it was ping-pong ball after ping-pong ball, 1300 to be exact for his 13^th and 14^th birthdays. Then came high school. The doctor and his wife decided to home school Ben so that he didn’t get beat up and picked on by bigger high schoolers. That was fine with Ben, more time to sit and stare at his ping-pong balls! Year 15, 16, 17 and 18 came and wow 3700 more ping-pong balls came his way. As I said before, the doctor had stopped questioning this obsession and actually was single handedly supporting the southern California ping-pong ball market!! But, this year added a new twist. The Doctor had to get Ben a graduation present. Now, rich kids normally get cars or trips for graduation but the doctor didn’t even flinch, he knew what Ben wanted.

So, at bens home school graduation party he opened his parents gift, you guessed it, 10,000 brand new ping pong balls!!! What a great day!! Ben’s dad not only knew ahead of time what to give him but he upped the number so much that Ben was speechless. How lucky he was to have such a great set of parents.

So, we have focused on Ben’s fascination without mentioning that he was an amazingly smart kid. He got accepted to college and had to pack up and leave for school. It took 12 hours just to get all the ping-pong balls loaded into the car to take to school. Never would he go away to school without his beloved ping-pong balls.

He got a single room dorm so that he could be alone with his stuff and no one would see him staring all day (when he wasn’t at class) at his ping-pong balls. Birthday 19,20,21 and 22 came and his parents never missed a beat, 5000 more ping-pong balls graced his shelves and he couldn’t be happier. Plus, he couldn’t wait to see how many he would get for his college graduation.

Back at home his parents were talking about what to get him. The doctor put his foot down and said there was no way he was going to get his son ping-pong balls for college graduation. So he got him a car, a brand new Range Rover. The doctor thought to himself that there was no way his son would want ping-pong balls over a 60,000-dollar car!! Well, graduation day came and Ben was so excited he could barely sit still through the ceremony. The family got to dinner and the doctor slid a small box over to Ben after they ate. Ben thought to himself, “He must have bought so many that they couldn’t even bring them into the restaurant.

Ben slowly opened the box and found the keys inside. “Wow, he thought, my dad bought me so many ping pong balls that he had to buy a car to put them in!!” When they left and got to the car and Ben found it empty he was destroyed inside. He couldn’t believe that his parents would forget his love for ping-pong balls!! He was so upset that his got in the new car and drove away without talking to his parents. The next day he showed up at their hotel in a much better mood.

His parents were thrilled, finally he got over this childhood fetish and came over to thank us and take us for a ride in the new car. To their dismay when they went outside for Ben to drive them to the airport they saw his old car! The doctor went nuts, “Where is the new car BEN!!!” he shouted. “I traded it in for 5 million ping pong balls” said Ben with a totally straight face. His parents were distraught, 60,000 dollars on ping-pong balls was ridiculous! Even Ben’s mom was staring to get fed up with this craziness. They returned home after many heated words and the biggest fight ever with their perfect little son.

They never talked again!! They had enough and couldn’t stand to see him after that incredible waste of money. He was never invited back to the house and he never tried to come home. Even though they were ignoring each other, Ben’s parents still sent him 5000 ping-pong balls every year on his birthday. Even though they couldn’t stand to see him, they still loved him and wanted him to know that. 20 years went by, or as Ben would count time 100,000 ping-pong balls, and Ben was all grown up.

He had his own family, house, cars, and career. He even had a storage shed on the back of his property for all the ping-pong balls. He was 42 years old when his doctor (not his dad, his actual medical doctor) gave him some horrible news. He only had 4 months left to live. A rare disease had destroyed his body and left him almost totally bedridden. The only thing he was able to do was walk out to his ping-pong balls and stare, like he always had.

His wife, seeing that the end was near tried to get in touch with Ben’s parents. Finally she did and they rushed to a plane and flew to be with their son. They had lost out on 20 years of his life over these stupid ping-pong balls and they weren’t going to miss being with him at the end. They even stopped at the store to get him a package of ping-pong balls!

When they got there they all cried and laughed and hugged. They were all so happy to put the feud to an end and be a family again after such a long time. Ben got worse at a rapid pace and eventually was at his deathbed. His doctor came out of his room and told his dad that Ben wanted to see him. Ben apologized for being stubborn and so did his dad. They spent the next hour catching each other up on life and laughing together. Then, as Ben’s eyes started to glaze and his breath became ragged, his dad had to ask him the question we have all been asking ourselves. “Ben, I have to ask you this question and please don’t get mad”. Ben told him to ask whatever he wanted. His dad then said “ I have to know, why ping pong balls. I could have given you anything in the world, why did you always want ping pong balls??” Ben said, “ Dad, you are right, you have earned the right to know why. The reason I wanted all those ping-pong balls is…” and Ben died.

The End

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I felt like my blog was lacking, only having 2 posts and all, so I thought this would bulk it up a little. I promise that this is the last story with no point (well, for awhile that is!!) I love you all, please don’t stop reading this blog!!!