When I was growing up, most of the kids in the neighborhood were not that into sports. It was a farming community, and there were so many places to explore that a lot of people did not bother joining the sports teams. Activities like fishing, hiking, and of course swimming, were much more popular than football. Don't get me wrong – we did have that small town football fanaticism, but it was by no means universal. Most of us never really did anything more organized than backyard sports.
I suppose that the term backyard sports meant something a little bit different back then than it does today. Living in the suburbs, I see a lot of people with big, expensive, backyard sports centers. They have built in basketball hoops, soccer nets, and football goals, all attached to a layer of ugly blacktop. Back then, however, things were a lot less organized. We did not have the money to get serious about a backyard sport. Instead, we would play catch, tag, kick the can, or one of many other similar games.
Back then, my favorite backyard sport of all was something that we called sharks and fish. The sharks would stand in the middle while all of the fish would have to get from one side of the field to the other. The sharks would try to tackle the fish as they rushed by. Then those fish who had been tackled would be sharks next time.
Things have really changed a lot since then. I don't see any of the kids playing the backyard sports that we used to grow up with. My son is a pretty athletic kid, but all he likes to do is skateboard. He has been bothering me to set up a backyard skateboarding park for him, but I haven't really decided yet. It seems like, if he is so into backyard sports, he should take some initiative. Back when I was a kid, we built our own gear instead of making our parents buy it for us. It taught us passion and follow-through. It also taught us the value of money.
Still, I suppose I might give in. With the way that the cops treat skateboarders around here, I would just as soon have him stay in the backyard when he is practicing. I just hope he sticks with it long enough to make the backyard activity worthwhile.
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