Let the games begin

First off, Happy Easter. I am not a big Easter fan, but there is candy, usually a free meal with the family and oh so many hours of trying to catch that damn bunny. Anyway, when I say the games I don't mean the WNBA (are they playing this year? apparently they have a draft. who honestly knew that?) or the second week of baseball. (Sorry for the the parentheses, but what the fuck is with opening week? Opening day isn't enough? Is April opening month?)

The games I mean are the games kids play. Not games like jacks, hopscotch and red rover (even though red rover is a sweet game that leads to broken arms) but real games like kickball, dodgeball, four square and two-hand touch football.

As a kid, I loved recess. I loved anytime I could be outside. It wasn't so much as not being in class but it was the chance to show my athletic superiority to anyone who was willing to watch. Playing endless hours of kickball, baseball, dodgeball, etc. is what I remember most from my childhood. I can still tell you that in 4th and 5th grade I was always quarterback of one of the two teams and I could tell you who was first pick everytime. I still remember my first concussion (sort of) that I got when I slipped on ice in the bus shoot trying to catch a touchdown, that I of course caught.

But its not just the games that the pros play. Its games like steal the pin, take that and dodgeball that I miss and remember most. The incredible feeling of drilling some other kid in the back with a perfectly thrown Gator Ball as he ran away or the joy of being on the winning team when you in fact stole the pin from the enemy and crossed the line. Or even the thrill of scoring a goal in floor hockey which was invented for all the people like me who cant skate but still want to be Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky or that black guy who plays hockey.

I wonder if kids still love these games? Will my kids have memories like this? I really don't know, but I hope so. As Juice wrote in a past post kids today think playing baseball means playing Xbox. For them to workout they need a Wii Fit. For me, my friends from elementary school and every kid who ever loved recess, it was about the games. Picking teams, winning, losing, fighting, arguing but most of all playing. Whether you wore a Jerry Rice, Randy Moss or Brett Favre jersey in the fall you loved the games and remember them still.

Looking back I wish I had spent more time with those same guys as we got older. We still could have played the games, but as you get older you get busy. You have to get a summer job, you have practice for the high school team and its harder to get together for a good old fashioned game of whiffle ball, 3 on 3 hoops or dare I say four square on the elementary school courts.

-The Kicker