Friday, July 11, 2008

Boys just wanna have fun
The wiffleball controversy continues and, while yesterday I expressed a certain ambivalence while judging the rights of homeowners to enjoy peace and quiet (as though that exists in crowded Riverside), I was dismayed to read in today's Greenwich Time that the Boy's Club has offered to step up to the plate and organize a wiffleball tournament in some other, more suitable location. Yeah, that's what we need, yet another program structured and run by adults. God forbid we let kids figure out what they want to do on their own.

Meanwhile, I see that the town has just finished erecting a cyclone fence on the corner of the Post Road and Carey Road in Riverside, thus effectively blocking (for now) access to the rope swing over the Mianus. For years (certainly dating back to my childhood in the 60's and probably long before that) local kids would hang a rope off a big tree on the bank of the river, close to the dam, and everyone in town under 18 would find their way there to swing into the river, scramble atop the dam and, in general, cool off and have fun. The cops would show up occasionally to cut down the swing and chase us off the roof of the pump house on the other side of the river (great jumping spot) but a replacement would be found, always.

Now they've gone and fenced off the path to the swing. I'm sure resourceful kids don't need my help but I may just drop off a huge pair of bolt (and fence) cutters that remain from my own misspent youth.

1 comment:

juan sosa said...

I'm all for unsupervised kids play--hoorah! But I think this has little to do with wiffle ball and much to do with good neighborliness.

My parents would have told me to speak to the neighbors and get their approval before undertaking such a project. The field is not in the middle of a forest, but abutting homes. If my father was going to help me build such a thing (outfield walls, bleachers, etc.), he would have come with me to speak with the neighbors.