Rec

I just fixed a flat bicycle tire for one of the kids today. Looks like a noisy summer for me.

and give kids wonderful memories and guidelines for their own future.

That would annoy me!

But I see the upside, so...more power to them.

I kind of hate all those basketball goals they leave at the edge of the road. We've got all these ordinances where we can't put our trash out until 2 days before pickup, but the roads are littered with them. And when you're driving down the road, half the time they act like they're doing you a favor by moving out of the way.

There again, I remind myself, grumpy old man, and exercising probably isn't the worst thing for them to be doing.

young people - you won't be grumpy for much longer.

solved the problem of the new kid on the block. I never mind kids playing and making noise. This neighborhood is full of children, which is just great with me. I'm sure I'll get to know some of them better this way, too. It's all good.

Is when kids aren't making noise

So many of us more mature folks like to gripe about the younger ones, especially when they're doing anything that lets off steam and makes a little noise.

Good for you.

one on the Israeli-Lebanese border?

Glad it did

at least on a wave as we get the paper or mail level. I'm here all day, since I work at home, and people know I'm handy at fixing stuff and have all the tools. So, I've been fixing bikes and skateboards since about a year after I moved in. These kids parents are at work, and the kids in the neighborhood know they can ring our doorbell and either my wife or I will do what we can to help. I also have bandaged some skinned elbows and knees, and chased off some mean dogs who were harassing kids. I guess I'm the old geezer in the neighborhood who fixes stuff and never gets annoyed by kids making noise. There was an old guy like that in the neighborhood I grew up in. Caught him working in his garage once, and he stopped and made me a cool rubber band gun from a clothespin and a piece of wood cut on his bandsaw to look like a gun. His name was Mike Lighty. We all knew him.

I had loads of friends whenever I was visiting at my grandparents' house. All the kids loved him. He never lost that kid-like way of looking at the world and all the things in it. He was the best grandfather any kid could ever have. He's been gone a long time but I still miss him.

father-in-law to swap stories with and neither of the daughters-in-law had present fathers. He is the only
of those to everyone in the family.
He does a grand job but sometimes I wish there was someone else in the family to share that role with him.
He never complains.


Tikki

I love the Summer noise of kids having the time of their lives in the pool.

My neighborhood reminds me a lot of the one I grew up in back in the 1950s. Actually, all the houses here are from that vintage. The kids in the neighborhood are all outdoors anytime the weather is good. There's a little lake a few blocks away they can fish in, and these kids are out and doing stuff all day long, just like we used to. It's not a well-to-do neighborhood, but there are tons of families in it, all working and raising their kids. It's a nice place to live. And it's in a big city, too.

But in a small town.
And in the summer after breakfast we took off on our bikes and we could go anywhere we wanted and no one said a thing and our parents did not worry about us...they knew we would be back when we were hungry...there was no TV and so we had to entertain ourselves.
The only commercial entertainment was the movies and every Saturday they would have a matinee double feature...usually a western with cartoons and a cereal... it cost a quarter....and you could usually get that by turning in pop bottles.

we have made a lot of gains sense then...but we have lost a lot too...mostly freedom for kids to run around and have fun.

either I would ride my horse or go off on my bike with my brother for the day. We'd find friends to play with or swim in one of the small lakes. I guess it's sort of different in small towns anyway because everyone knows each other. I've made it a point to get to know a lot of the neighbors where I live now (suburban area) but it's still not the same.

My parents and I lived on a cul-de-sac in which all the homes were owned and occupied by quiet retired couples who kind of kept to themselves. Only occasionally did some grandchild or grandniece show up, and I'd invariably go play with them. But it was rare. And it wasn't conducive to much play outside since the street level was blow the houses. Each driveway went up a hill to the house at the top, from the pavement of the circle below. I remember my parents always gritting their teeth about driving up and down the driveway during the winter. Lots of rock salt all over the pavement. So it wasn't like you could ride bikes around there - it just wasn't kid-friendly.

So whenever we went over to Aunt Anne's and Uncle Moon's, they had six kids and at least one was my age. And their whole street was lined with houses where there were other kids around the same age. There were kids all over the place. Up the street, down the street, across the street, up the hill to the next street over, and in the next blocks beyond that. There was noise and squealing to be heard for blocks from people's back yards. Boisterous activity all over the place. Packs of bicycles with eight-year-olds and ten-year-olds coming down the street. Kids running across everyone's back yard. Nobody had fences. And always the noise, the din of lots of outdoor activity and balls bouncing and the little ringing bell on somebody's tricycle handle and hollering and squealing and stuff.

I LOVED it. But I barely knew what to do with myself. It was like going from a desert island to Honeydukes.

... thanks for posting it.

My next door neighbor (grumpy John McCain type) said, "You're going to have every kid in the neighborhood in your yard."
To which I replied, "What is wrong with that? I hope my boys bring their friends here."

He didn't get it.

(and btw, he passed away five years later. The night of the 1992 Presidential election. I think Clinton's win caused him to have a coronary.)

Someone should have told him

"Field of Dreams" I do believe.

And by that, I mean you should fist fight those kids. Just kidding. Great post.

Yes, we need to follow your neighbor's example.

Plenty of people would be annoyed to have the local kids hanging out in the driveway. Good for you!

We have tried to do this in various ways. We cut gates into the fences in the back yards so we can go back and forth between yards. Each yard has a different micro-climate. Ours is shady so it is the summer hangout. The neighbor to the west has mostly sun, so we use it as a community garden. The neighbor to the east has a great BBQ setup so we use that. Instead of each house owning its own ladders, lawn mowers, lawn chairs, etc., we share them and take turns mowing the yards.

On the block where I live, there are very few fences between yards, so kids feel free to roam as they choose. That's kind of how it was when I was a kid, too.

I put up a roll up hoop almost 10 years ago, my girls used it a little, but then some other kids asked if they could shoot. No problem, occasionally i have to replace a net, other than that nothing. Kids have even asked to borrow a basketball and it has never disappeared. In fact, I somehow ended up with a second ball left in the front yard.

We also have a small park down the street, drops down into a canyon so quite often kids drink beer at nights. Some of the neighbors go crazy and have even come to me to go chase kids off. I take the dog down quite often and when I see them I only hassle them if I see a bottle, which has only happened twice. I explain to them it is a kids park and I have seen broken bottles which is unacceptable. In both cases the kids collected all the bottles and began to walk off. I walk out with them, ask for the empties and throw them away, ask if the driver has been drinking, in both cases they claimed not. Check them out closely then tell them I can drive them home if the driver has been drinking, both times polite, not enough empty beers to assume anyone was close to the limit and that is it.

On other occasions I have seen kids doing nothing wrong, just hanging out and a security guard will hassle them for being in the park past dusk. I walk up and explain that they are behaving, know where they live and they are just leaving. Other than a pissed of Security Guard, no problem.

Finally, I have a dog that occasionally gets out. A neighbor a couple houses down puts a bag with poop on our front door with a note. Fine, could have been my dog, make sure we watch him close and not let him go near the yard. They put a handmade sign up stating "Keep your dog off the lawn." Fine again, It could have been my dog, if they talked to me I would have apologized, and picked up any droppings, and explained to him he bolts in their direction because their next door neighbor gives him bones every time the dog gets out and after about 5 minutes the dog comes back home. Anyway the lame sign has been up for about six months, whatever.

Last Friday I left my garage door open overnight, in the garage is a laptop, two computers and my wallet/money clip with $100. Not a thing has been touched! Walk out to pick up the paper and notice the house with the dog sign has some strange stuff in the driveway. Now they have fake snakes and pinwheels that I guess are there to scare bunnies, so I just think it is some more weird stuff they are trying. Later in the day my daughter points out that someone has tagged their garage door with a "F&%* YOU! Luckily it turns out to be with some washable paint so no major harm.

Anyway, it seems highly unlikely that my house is untouched while the grumpy house takes abuse, unless it is one of the multiple neighborhood kids that have either used the hoop or who I have treated with respect at the park. Point being Mineral Man, your house will likely have "protected" status for the next 10 years.

from adults to kids, is a form of protecting yourself. The kids playing basketball in the driveway will be teenagers before long.

Now I did have one kid slam a basketball off my car door. A regular shot with an air ball would have hit my car door, this was a slam off my car door. The reason I know this is I work out of the garage and can hear the kids playing. Multiple times I heard shots hitting off my car, to the point that I started parking on the other side of the driveway. On this occasion it was slam. When I went out it was one kid, who tried to stare me down. Now his Dad pushes him hard, understood, but I ask him what happened and he tries the stare down. I tell him, that wasn't an air ball, and if it happens again we have a problem, and if he wants to come in to talk or have a soda come on in. Dude just continues to stare me down.

Point being, everything ain't roses, the kid is now getting ready to head off to College, if he wants to be a douchebag, so it goes, if he wants to listen to other points of view, so it goes.

to live in those "Over 55" communities. No kids ? No thanks. What is summer without the sound of kids shouting and laughing.

Here is something nice: single payer. Wait, just as a ferinstance. I'm not pushing buttons, it's just that it's a damn good idea. But it has been demonized all to hell. You can not say "single payer" without a strong, visceral negative reaction from many and instant correlation with "Comyoonizm" with a large part of the populace.

Can't discuss wages because working people hate what other working people make.

Can't discuss easier access to quality education because hate.

Can't discuss ending a war bec-hate.

At this point someone has to hit rock bottom economically before they might take off the Rush headphones. It's like the movie Tommy.

So what would the nice thing be? Looks like the "liberal media" has poisoned everything that would be beneficial to people.

Seriously, I'm out of ideas here. Not trying to kick yer shins or nuthin.

Like a gulp of cool water in the desert.. I really appreciated this. Thanks for sharing, MineralMan.
(and send my regards to your new neighbor!)

With no tv and no computers, it was fresh air fun all summer. My Uncle was Mr. Fixitman when I grew up.

What a wonderful post, and you sound like a really cool human being. And yes, I would love for the other kids to come over and play with us. Nice, that is, LOL.

That attractive thing would be bags of cash.
As long as 40 families can spend a tiny amount of their immense fortunes to buy ads that convince low information voters to either vote a certain way or to not vote at all by being turned off, our democracy is in danger.
A billionaire giving a politician 25 million dollars is like someone with 1000 dollars giving you 25 dollars.

I really did like your story though.

We lived in Dundalk, Maryland in a rented row home. My sister was about 11 yrs old and my little brother was 4 yrs. My parents had these 2 kids late in life after having 4 kids already. He like to sit on the porch and the people with their kids would walk by going to the 7-11 to buy junk food and drinks. Sometimes my dad would joke with a kid and say can I have a drink. Sometimes the kid would stop and want to share their drink. I dad would laugh and tell him he was only playing with him but thanked him anyway. Sometimes Dad would take the kids and us older kids and go across the street and play softball. It was a hugh empty field. Kids would come by and ask if they could play and he would say sure and tell him to go stand over there or over here. It was so much fun. It got to be where the neighborhood kids would come over and ask if our daddy could come out and play. My little sister got to be jealous for a little bit and told daddy why couldn't their own daddies come out and play. Dad would tell them maybe their dads are still at work. She fell for it. Well my little sister ended up on a ball team. Daddy would go all the time and it game our mother a break. Well daddy got really sick and ended up in the hospital. One day while momma was with him his temp spiked very high and he was bleeding and they couldn't stop it. He died. Many of the kids in the neighborhood came to the funeral home and my little sister's team came also. It was difficult on my little sister and little brother. It was hard on us older kids. I mean I was 22. It took a long time before I could even talk about my dad without crying. Now I remember the wonderful times and how lucky I was to have wonderful parents.

Kids make you feel alive.

But this is a great story. Thanks for posting.

huge numbers of "straight" people could not stand to watch
Hippies having so damned much fun, so they just HAD to
come check it out, and many stayed.

Occupy was starting to feel that way too, which clearly
scared the shit out of the 1%, so they are having their hired
goons in blue (as usual) to put an end to it no matter how
ugly it looked or how brutally people were treated by cops.

Most Democrats and Democratic groups lack good places to meet.

In LA, you have to pay a lot of money to rent a room -- just a room.

That fact prohibits groups of any size from being able to meet on a regular basis and talk and discuss and organize.

Occupy solved the problem by using public spaces, but were kicked out.

Most Democrats don't have kinds of homes -- in terms of size and appearance -- in which they can entertain a lot of people.

And the Democrats who do have those kinds of houses are most likely fairly conservative. So what to do?

It is essentially a "housing" problem.

I'd be lucky to cram 15 people into my house. But then many of the houses in LA, the older houses, are very small. The big ones have been divided into apartments.

Occupy Portland is renting space for $800 a month,
in a Catholic Church noted for it's support of homeless
people.

I don't know if other Occupies are doing this or not.

First, we should congratulate good parents. It's a tough job. Nobody is sure how to do it really, really right, and every child is different. It's good to share brilliant ideas like your neighbor's.

Second, your story illustrates the importance of community. And community forms around common interests and activities.

The religious right relies on the existing communities of churches to provide the political equivalent of your neighbor's basketball game -- a gathering place for people who think like you and want to do what you want to do.

Democrats have to find this same kind of thing.

There are drinking liberally and reading liberally groups, but we Democrats haven't done much beyond that. This is why we have such a tough time uniting when elections come around.

Again. Great post. I'm looking forward to the discussion on this topic.

My kids and their friends in the neighborhood are always out playing until sundown. The sound of them playing outside always brings a smile to my face!

My wife and I were talking this evening. I think that a lot of the families in the area don't have the money for expensive video games and stuff like that. Not a lot of new cars, etc. in the area. So, the kids go out and do stuff. Seems healthier to me.

A year after we moved into this neighborhood, we put a couple of lawn chairs and a small table out in the front yard. Every day, before dinnertime, we'd go out and have a glass of wine or two, and throw peanuts for the squirrels and blue jays. Neighbors would often come and visit for a bit and we'd grab more chairs and offer something. That was in 2005. Now, there are plastic lawn chairs in several yards on the block, and people sit out there on nice evenings. Anything that fosters communication in a neighborhood is a good thing.

I think that a lot of the families in the area don't have the money for expensive video games and stuff like that. Not a lot of new cars, etc. in the area. So, the kids go out and do stuff. Seems healthier to me.

I wasn't going to post this until you mentioned this, but here's the version of your story in my neighborhood:

Family moves in and puts up a basketball hoop. Since the houses in my neighborhood are on a mountain slope, the pavement where the hoop is is in a direct line to my kitchen, where I just put in two large windows so I could enjoy the sight of the forest while I cooked.

BAM. BAM. BAM with the basketball. It's like somebody hitting me over the head with a baseball bat.

I'm thinking, wow, looks like I'll have to take my cooking to the other end of the house and chop my peppers in the bedroom. Since I already have to leave my house while all the leaf blowing. weed wacking and other lawn service work is going on, I'm used to accommodating everyone.

However it all worked out very nicely because the neighbor's kid has the attention span of a flea. After about three BAMs I looked out and saw him texting and otherwise occupied with his phone. Next thing I know, he's gone.

That was last year. His parents try to get him to play outside more, but he can never make it past about three basket attempts. One time they arranged for some other kids to come over and play and that lasted a little longer, but not much.

The other day, while working my garden, I noticed the kid trundling down the street, what looks like all 250 pounds of him, with his little man-boobies shaking under his T-shirt.

Anyway, your story was nice. We have some very funny kids on the other side of the neighborhood who come around and talk and make jokes. They're fun and some of their remarks and observations are priceless.


Cher

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy#section_1O.

Here is a snippet from one encounter under the Ping Pong Diplomacy article over in Wiki:

...."The events leading up to the encounter began when Glenn Cowan missed his team bus one afternoon after his practice in Nagoya during the 31st World Table Tennis Championship. Cowan had been practicing for 15 minutes with the Chinese player, Liang Geliang, when a Japanese official came and wanted to close the training area. As Cowan looked in vain for his team bus, a Chinese player waved to him to get on his Chinese team bus. Moments after his casual talking through an interpreter to the Chinese players, Zhuang Zedong came up from his back seat to greet him and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of Huangshan Mountains, a famous product from Hangzhou. Cowan wanted to give something back, but all he could find from his bag was a comb. The American hesitantly replied, "I can't give you a comb. I wish I could give you something, but I can't." When it was time for them to get off the bus, hordes of photographers and journalists were waiting for them. In the political climate of the 1960s, the sight of an athlete of Communist China with an athlete of the United States was sure to garner attention. Glenn Cowan later bought a T-shirt with a red, white and blue, peace emblem flag and the words "Let It Be, which he presented to Zhuang Zedong at another chance meeting."

The entire story about Ping Pong Diplomacy is a worthy read for those unfamiliar with this bit of world history.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy#section_1O.

ALL of my neighbors who have kids have basketball set-ups, have had for at least 20 years, and i think if you looked a little closer instead of just noticing it when it hit you where it hurts (next door) you would see that

this is simply the norm for the last two, three decades

you would no more deny yr kid the basketball hoop than you would deny them underwear

i see no lesson here, other than a scary one about how much people don't notice in everyday life until it impacts them very PERSONALLY

but there is nothing clever about following the crowd and ordering your kid to be "popular" and like everyone else, it was ever thus...my parents couldn't accept that i was shy and they too wanted to force performance upon me, it's actually kinda sad since the kid now knows he can only be accepted if he's somebody he ain't

Putting up a B ball hoop hardly makes one a conformist. If you look around you can find a positive lesson in most anything in life even if that thing is completely ordinary. You might be negative because you will never be "popular" with an attitude like this and It sounds like you haven't come to terms with your insecurities. Hope you figure out who you are or "ain't".

"wanted to force performance upon (you)" and "order(ed) you to be 'popular'" has engendered some serious misanthropic tendencies.

Have you sought help for this? Counseling or psycho-therapy might resolve some of these issues.

Last edited Sat Jun 9, 2012, 10:17 AM - Edit history (1)

In fact, there's not another one on the block. Not everybody can afford one. So, you're incorrect on that count.

I laugh..I think a couple of the girls sandbagged the boys..

It's a great game.
Girls and boys can both play horse.
The game is played by shooting at the basket from different spots on the driveway.
Everyone gets to take turns taking a shot at the basket, from any spot on the driveway, until someone makes a basket.

A round starts when the first player makes a basket.
The first player to make a basket is the lead player of that round, who starts off all of the next rounds until he misses a basket.
When the lead player makes a basket, all of the other opponents in the game have to shoot from that same spot on the driveway.
All players are active in the first round.
All players get a shot at the basket from that same spot on the driveway.

If the opponents to the lead player make the basket, they remain active in that round.
If the opponents to the lead player don't make the basket, they are out of that round of the game.

A round ends when all of the opponents to the lead player have missed their shots at the basket, OR the lead player misses a basket.

If the lead player of that round makes a basket, then all of the other opponents still active in that round have to shoot from that same spot.
The lead player of each round is the player that chooses the spot on the driveway where he or she will shoot his basket from to keep the round going.
Opponents to the lead player of that round that miss their basket are inactive for the rest of that round and have to wait for a new round to start.

After the first round is finished and everyone has taken their shot at making a basket, the lead player of the round can shoot the next basket from the same spot on the driveway, or choose to move to a different spot on the driveway.
In either case, the opponents to the lead player have to make the next basket in order to stay active in the round, whether it is from a new spot on the driveway or the same spot on the driveway.

Shooting continues in the round until the lead player misses a basket, which means that a new round has to be started by everyone else taking turns to make a shot in the basket.
Active players go first, then inactive players that were bounced out of that particular round, then finally the lead player of the last round gets a chance to make a basket if no one else has made a basket yet.

A new round doesn't start until a player makes a basket.
All players are considered active when trying to start a new round.
There are no penalities for any player missing a basket if a round hasn't been started yet.
All players get a turn to make a basket until someone makes a basket to start a new round.
There are no "do overs".
No excuses for poor shots are acceptable.
Whining is prohibited.

If the lead player makes a basket every time in the round, and all of the opponents still active in that round missed the last basket that the lead player made, the lead player of that round gets a letter.
Starting with the letter "H", letters are awarded one at a time.
And then subsequent letters are added until a player can spell out the word "horse".
The first player to be able to spell "horse" wins the game.

After receiving a letter, the lead player starts a new round.

A game can consist of many rounds, and take up to an hour or two to complete.
A round can consist of many shots made in a row by the lead player and can take as long as an hour, if the lead player is good or lucky, or both.
There is no 2nd place for any player having the letters h,o,r,and s.
It's winner take all, and only the player who can spell "horse" wins.
Therefore, there is only 1 winner possible for each game of horse.
So, there are no disputes over who won each game of horse.
Many games can be played each day.

Style matters when people are being sticky about the rules, which my friends always were when I was growing up, and so I am as well, to this very day.
A hook shot made by the lead player, who started the round, has to be made by a hook shot by the other opponents in the game. Not just from the same spot on the driveway where the basket was made.
A left-handed shot made by the lead player has to be made left-handed by everyone still active in the round, even if everyone in the game is right-handed.
An underhanded foul shot, ala Wilt the Stilt, made by the lead player has to be shot by all of the other opponents in the game the same way.

Any number of players can play.
But, the game plays out the best if it is limited to 5 players.
If 6 players are available, it's more fun to play a 3-on-3 game of basketball.
If 7 players are available, put the 2 tallest players on opposing teams, and then play a 3-on-4 game of basketball.

That's how I killed almost every day that it didn't rain in the summertime when I was growing up until they built a pool close enough to my home for me to ride my bike to.
Because my mom would not let me ride my bike farther than a mile from the house, or else I might see where the rich people live, and would never come back.

We live next to a mean spirited - children hating, leaf-hating person.

We're lucky. The closest mean neighbor is a couple of doors away, but his kids still play in my yard. I make sure to say Hi to them as often as I can.

Although I'm very sorry you live next to a miserable jerk, that made me laugh out loud.

They knew that there is no law against leaves blowing directly from our trees over to theirs so they wrote many letters asking us to stop the leaves by cutting our trees down! They didn't get a reply so they installed the ugly wire fence! The saga over the John Kerry signs was an interesting one too.

I don't even have kids but the sound of kids playing, laughing, bouncing balls, riding scooters, etc. is oddly comforting. It's a happy sound that lets me know the world is ok at least somewhere.

Children are hope, personified, as far as I'm concerned.