The Sports Field

The Sports Field

It was Sunday afternoon.I was sitting on the front porch reading.I could hear laughter,shouting and horns blowing coming from the Leisure Park.I decided to get on my bicycle ride over and see what was happening today.There is a pathway leading from our subdivision through the soya bean fields to the Leisure Park.That’s what they call it.I call it The Sports Field.

There was a rugby tournament taking place.These Sports Fields are huge.There were two large well groomed baseball diamonds,lighted for evening games.There is an oval exercise track, and six soccor or rugby fields.There is a building with modern washrooms and lots of parking spaces.Everything looked lovely and green and well kept.

There must have been 100 cars in the parking lot.Crowds were sitting in their portable chairs watching the various games.There was a loud speaker system and a portable platform for the officials to sit on and make announcements and give the calls of the game.There were light portable tents for some to sit under and keep out of the hot sun. When the tournament was over the players were fed hot dogs and hamburgers.The food tents gave protection from the hot sun.There were four portable generators which provided the electricity to run the large portable coolers that contained the food.Everything seemed to be running smoothly and it looked as though all were enjoying a good time.

I got to thinking what it was like when I was growing up.I was a country boy and there were only about 400 people living in the nearest town.There was no soccor or rugby teams,just a baseball team but I never had any time to play on it in the summer.Most farm boys were needed to help with the haying and harvesting.It was a busy time.

There was no organized teams for most of us,we few kids would make up our own games.Usually we played baseball and called it scrub.There were no adults around or ball diamonds to play on.We just put down a piece of wood or a sack for our bases and played in a field near the farm buildings.We did have lots of fun but my how things have changed.





Written August 15 2010