"Youth Recreation Long Ago in Our Town" - Time Out #72

Here's the setting---it is the 1950's, and you are a youth in Our Town. When you are not in school, what do you do?

No, personal electronic devices and video games are not an option.

Instead, almost all the activities available are in the giant outdoors in those simpler, gentler times.

Since I spent 5 of those formative years in the Norman Rockwell-like West 4th Avenue neighborhood near South Walnut Street, we could always have a great pickup game within a few blocks of our rented home. As far as which sporting activity we played usually depended on what time of year we were outdoors.

As I would walk a couple of blocks east of our place, I could visit a half dozen of my school friends who also lived along that tree-lined street. At West 4th and South Cleveland was Judge Wilcox's property, his home situated where the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority now sits. To the west of his elegant home, he owned a huge vacant lot. He was always gracious to let neighborhood fellows use it to play a highly competitive game of football, or less often, a game of baseball. Many of those regular athletic challenges made memories that still linger today. It didn't matter some guys were bigger, older, etc, it was all for the fun of playing. And Judge Wilcox, along with society in general in those days, was not concerned with liability risks of injury lawsuits; it was all about letting kids be kids, and letting them have the fun of the day.

Usually we would pick 2 captains, and they would choose each team, alternating choices. Because everyone knew each person's athletic ability, the teams were usually evenly matched. Interestingly, too, as I recall,major injuries were extremely rare.

When not engaged in neighborhood endeavors, we were all heavily involved in Stillwater Parks & Recreation organized little league sports, namely basketball and baseball. Pee wee football was non-existent with a school sponsored team beginning at the 8th grade level. Therefore, at the 7th grade level, the YMCA sponsored the football team, nicknamed the Stallions. We had volunteer coaches that spent many hours with us, trying to teach us the finer points of the popular fall sport. Our regular practices were held just south of the old junior.high school, where the current Stillwater Public Library is located. I thoroughly enjoyed playing on this team in 1959, Each time I look at the old black and white team photograph, my mind's eye reflects back on all the great times I had with those guys way back when.

Little league basketball and baseball were highly competitive in the day in Our Town. We had local businesses as sponsors such as Simpson Pontiac, Tommy's Rx Pharmacy, Wash Inn Laundry, Phillips 66, Murphy's Hardware & Appliances, Dudley & Heath Drillers, Bates Brothers, etc. I'm sure I have left out many other former little league sponsors, but I am forever grateful they supported us at that crucial time in our lives.

For basketball, we would practice and play games in the old armory on East 9th Avenue; the old, half-circular, drafty, metal building gym in Recreation Park, torn down years ago, and the old gym at Vet Village in the nw section of the OSU main campus.

For baseball, we would play our games on both diamonds at Recreation Park where the fields are still located on the east side. Some other games were played, as they are today, at Couch Park. Practices were led all over town, including no longer existing Cross Field on West 12th Ave, and at the school backstops such as Westwood Elementary, etc.

Most of our little league basketball and baseball games were played against other local teams, but the real treats for the players (i.e., me and others!) were our out-of-town games. Our parents and coaches would drive us to area towns (Perkins, Glencoe, Perry, Mulhall, Yale, Morrison, etc), and play their age-equivalent teams. We definitely thought we were the "big city" boys when we would walk into their gyms/baseball diamonds. Occasionally, however,

the country boys would whip up on us score-wise, and we would end up eating a huge piece of humble pie. I remember our coaches telling us after those infrequent losses, "It is good for your character". I wasn't sure what the coaches meant by telling us that, but as I aged, I realized the ups and downs of sports teach life lessons that are incredibly valuable in the big picture.

And the Big Picture is what life is all about.

That's my story, and I"m sticking to it.