Birthday Musings

Since today is my birthday, I thought I'd look way back to a much simpler time when I was growing up.

I grew up next to a baseball field (St Joe's Park). How great was that! During the summer we'd have pickup baseball games every day. The were no uniforms, no umpires, no parents, just a bunch of kids playing the game for the joy of it. I remember hitting a home run a few times. I'm a lefty and I could pull the ball down the first base line. We didn't have a set number of innings, we just played until we were tired. On every Sunday during the summer, there would be a real baseball game. There was a local league and the local team was St. Joes. There was always a good size crowd watching the games. My brother and I kept the score on an old wooden score board. For this we were paid the big sum of one dollar and all the free sodas we could drink. At times we would get distracted and would forget to put up the score until someone yelled at us. The parking lot was pretty close to the field and foul balls would often go that way. We would wait for the "thunk" that would mean that someone was going to need a new windshield. We were also part of the ground crew and we would groom the infield and line foul ball lines and batter boxes. After the game there was always a Polish picnic at the pavilion that was nearby. There would be a Polish band and good Polish food. In the fall, the pickup baseball games gave way to pickup football games. We would play tackle football with no equipment. I don't remember anyone ever getting hurt though. It was just good, clean fun. I don't see much of that anymore. Everything has to be organized and scheduled.

The field is still there and there are still baseball games but it's not the same. There are lights on the field now so most games are played at night. The crowds are nowhere near what they were when I was growing up. And there aren't anymore Polish picnics. The pavilion was torn down long ago. I still go to the field to let my dog run around. Being there brings back so many memories.