On June 6, 1944, the Allied army launched an offensive on five Normandy beaches. It was an operation planned and prepared for two years and, on the appointed day, the American General Eisenhower and the British Montgomery were in command. That day 226,000 Allied soldiers, 20,000 civilians and 220,000 German soldiers died. The military value of this fact was important, but almost more symbolic.
Perhaps one of the guys who, before 7 in the morning, bet on the entrances to the beaches of our coast is a descendant of some of those who gave their lives against Nazism. It's possible. Hence, that empty look, straight ahead, those tense nerves, the total absence of conversation between them, the fear of defeat, coupled with the desire for glory. But most of the women and men betting are national product, so their mythical will not be Normandy, but perhaps something less epic, like the first day of sales at El Corte Inglés or getting on the bus first to take a seat.
What is likely is that, given the determination, speed on the sand, peripheral vision and competitiveness, the Allied divisions that took the beaches of Normandy would not have had a couple of divisions of retirees like ours left over, which, to the point In the morning, they look for a place on the beaches to put chairs and umbrellas on them. They don't do it for them. They do it for their own, which is how wars are won. Get up early Arrive before the others. Run. raffle. Fight and push. Calculate. Draw, nail, pierce and open the parasol. If they saw them, some of their doctors in the CAP would cross themselves and withdraw much of the medication that they request and already take out of mere greed and addiction.
What are the old ones for? In summer, that question answers itself, especially if we spend the summer on the coast. There is an umbrella and, under it, a senior man or lady putting things away. It is time to eat and it is always Grandma who has gone up to the apartment to make the salad with tomatoes previously bought in the street market. And if you have to get up early and go to the beach, there is an old man or woman, while the young people sleep off their hangovers, the adults act as if they were still in the city –same hours, same Wi-Fi, same visit to the market to buy–. In summer, on the coast, the old man is for what he has to be: take care of his own.
And, focusing on the morning beach shot with umbrella placement, which in strictly sporting terms is known as Senior Umbrella, this type of event is regulated by local ordinances. The most ambitious – and restrictive, it must be said – was that of Algarrobo (Málaga), which set schedules and sanctioned abuse. The ordinance –which later inspired that of other towns– indicated that, once the umbrella was nailed down, its shade should be used immediately and for as long as it was unfolded. That is to say, the granny trick of placing the umbrella at 7:03 a.m., going to the apartment to have breakfast and having the young people go to the umbrella at 12:25 p.m. was not worth it. The penalty could be up to 300 euros.
Another aspect that the different ordinances also regulated is that no one could enter the playing field –the beach– before 7 in the morning. This was done to let the cleaning tasks finish and prevent a grandfather from sticking an umbrella in the belly of a tourist, in a coma from the bottle the night before. There is a start and end of the game and an authority –municipal, in this case–, which is the one who sets the rules. The development of the match is something else, because everything fits there. Consider that, despite being aged bodies, some of them have titanium prostheses under their skin, mechanical legs or arms, pacemakers, antidepressants, chemo remains, and others, literally, are insane with the possibility of being useful again. to win over the other old men, that human nature is what it is. There are shoves, insults, traps and crazy pelvises. Nothing that sea water does not cure.
Unfortunately, the players' clothing is unfortunate, but it is already known that anything goes in summer. The umbrellas, on many occasions, are simple, but, in others, they have benefits against the wind, and rooted in the terrain. The traditional and virile impalement of the umbrella pole in an arena that, at the same time, allowed and rejected such violence, in accordance with Greek mythology and the cazurrile mentality of the country's personnel, is, fortunately, falling into disuse.
This sport – beach grabbing and senior umbrella stringing – has a long-standing tradition. The first parasols from 3,500 years ago were Egyptian and consisted of palm fronds attached to a stick. But it was from China – like the covid – that it became popular. The idea of an umbrella went hand in hand with a high-class distinction, so if you bought an umbrella, you got a built-in slave. There were umbrellas in Rome, Greece and Persia. Also with a servant, because in Rome carrying the umbrella yourself was a sign of mannerism.
That all changed when Jean Marius, a Parisian merchant, improved the parasol by making it lightweight. The new model delighted Louis XIV, who granted it an exclusive contract for five years. After these, there were 300 umbrella and umbrella vendors. And it is that the world of the umbrella was equal to that of the umbrella, but, while the latter remained more in a civilized environment, the umbrella was confined to that of the beach. Part of the blame lay with Coco Chanel, who took to showing off her tan when fair-skinned standards were, because she meant you didn't work outdoors. Coco Chanel also recounted, in favor of her tan, that in the factories where the workers worked a thousand hours, the employers already turned their slaves a little pale.
The tournaments of this senior sport are usually the months of July and August. In the sixties similar events between mods and rockers were seen on the beaches of Brighton in winter. All of this does nothing but influence, in the homage to the symbolic, how important it is to take an enemy beach for future generations.
