Forrest Gump: [voice over] You know, it's funny what a young man recollects, 'cause I don't remember being born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas, and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic, but I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the wide world.
[back on the school bus a young girl about Forrest's age speaks up]
Young Jenny Curran: You can sit here if you want.
Forrest Gump: [voice over] I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She was like an angel.
Young Jenny Curran: Well, are you going to sit down or aren't ya?
[Forrest sits down next to her]
Young Jenny Curran: What's wrong with your legs?
Young Forrest Gump: Nothing at all, thank you. My legs are just fine and dandy.
Forrest Gump: [voice over] I just sat next to her on that bus and had a conversation all the way to school.
and let me share this one with you now:
[young Jenny's father is chasing her through the fields to beat her when she stops and hides in the corn field]
Young Jenny Curran: Pray with me, Forrest. Pray with me. Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far, far, far away from here. Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far...
Forrest Gump: [voice over] Mama always said God is mysterious. He didn't turn Jenny into a bird that day. Instead, he had the police say Jenny didn't have to stay in that house no more. She was to live with her grandma, just over on Creekmore Avenue, which made me happy, 'cause she was so close. Some nights, Jenny'd sneak out and come on over to my house, just 'cause she said she was scared. Scared of what, I don't know. But I think it was her grandma's dog. He was a mean dog. Anyway, Jenny and me was best friends all the way up through high school...
Now when I was a baby, Mama named me after the great Civil War hero General Nathan Bedford Forrest. She said we was related to him in some way. What he did was he started up this club called the Ku Klux Klan. They'd all dress up in their robes and their bed sheets and act like a bunch of ghosts or spooks or something'. They'd even put bed sheets on their horses and ride around. And anyway, that's how I got my name, Forrest Gump. Mama said the Forrest part was to remind me that sometimes we all do things that, well, just don't make no sense...
when you're down on the ground, everything looks hard.. it's like you're fighting windmills.. the guy who believes that, he sees limits.. but the dreamer, he's the kinda guy who believes that two balls fit into the hoop..
this will help you get accustomed to some basic basketball terms, and what follows is a prelude to the overture entitled 'basketball'..