How about you? Many of us used a garage to play our games when we were kids.
The door was one of my biggest playmates. Think about the multipurpose ball that we used, usually it was a tennis ball. You could play baseball off the wall, or off the garage door, hockey, maybe practice catch, and of course play tennis.
What was the power behind these garage door games? Imagination.
Above the door, a basketball goal, usually with backboard, could be hung to practice your game, or better yet, imagining playing in the big game—one you never lost.
In the past I have written about these types of imaginary games that we used to play. I want to address the topic again. Why? It irks me when I see these ads on TV about video games. Some are pretty violent, but they involve sitting in front of the TV or computer in a sedentary posture with no physical activity.
There has been plenty of discussion lately about an American epidemic of childhood obesity. It seems that it has improved over the past five years, a lot to do with First Lady Michelle Obama's push against the problem. There was another attempt by a concerned politician, former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, who tried to cut out the extra-large soda drinks by outlawing them. The former NYC mayor was unsuccessful, due to it being shot down by the courts.
My goal here is to point out a couple of things that relate to youngsters being physically active. In my youth, I was out the door to play and the TV was not part of my routine. I would go out in the yard—actually it was a parking lot behind our apartment building, which was part of my family’s business.
I always had some sort of ball in my hand. When I got to junior high, it was a basketball. I was always playing some sort of imaginary game, whether it was basketball or baseball. I lived for that.
My brain was constantly working on creative and imaginative sporting events, like a basketball game with hypothetical players. There was no keeping me down. I loved pretending I was involved in big games.
My dad encouraged me by putting up a basket and backboard on the side of a storage building that was adjacent to the parking lot, so it was hung over the lot (lucky me, the lot was covered by macadam).
Sometimes there would be a car parked under the hoop and I was unable to shoot baskets. That was tough during the NBA playoff games (my NBA playoffs). That’s when I would hop on my bike, with my ball tucked under my arm, and head about 4 miles, partially uphill, to the recreation field, where I knew there wouldn’t be any cars parked.
To be truthful, in those days, television bored me, but of course it is so different now because there are a gazillion TV stations to choose from. To think, during my youth there were only three network stations and a newly developed public TV network, giving me four choices that were not even a consideration for me because I needed to get out and play.
I know that times have changed and I know it isn’t easy to compete with the temptations of video-whatever. But there needs to be an effort by parents to encourage their children to be physically active.
All of these programs like AAU, travel and rec. teams are all fine and I support them, but getting the kids to initiate their own activity is just as important as and maybe even more important than the participation in organized play.
The adults seem to really like the idea of these organized programs, sometimes possibly more than the kids. New research, which was just recently presented, states that the youth of this country are not getting enough proper sleep time. Physical activity has been proven to improve sleep for the young and old.
The youth of our nation need to be stepping away from the social media and video games, at least for a budgeted time of their daily lives, and get out on the driveway and play against LeBron James, or, like I did, against Jerry West and use their God-given imagination to create the fun of living the dream.
Jerry West never did beat me in my backyard and thank goodness I never met him in a real game—it would have been curtains for me!
