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Grade School Shenanigans
I grew up in the Catholic school system. It wasn't as bad as everyone says, at least my experiences with it weren't so bad. When I was growing up, Rochester had only 3 Catholic grade schools (there are now 4) and one Catholic High School (there's still only one). My grade school was located pretty much in the middle of the downtown area. Because we were a private school and had to create our own funds to keep the school running (i.e. tuition and stuff) there wasn't a lot of room left over for frills. That is to say - we had no playground. we had a street - blocked off by cones. No jungle gym. No "big toy". No slide. No swings. Nothing. We had some four square boxes and hopscotch trails painted on to the tar at the side of the building. We were, for the most part, forced to create our own recess fun. I remember 4-square Tournaments, touch football games, red-rover games, "500" games, Freeze tag, some sort of quick action game where one person would start acting out a scene and then someone else would yell "freeze!" and the actors would have to stop and the "freeze!" yeller would step into the role of one of the actors and take the scene in a completely different direction. It was hysterical. "Who's Line is It Anyway" will do something like it on occasion and it's still hysterical. We had nothing to entertain us though (really) so we had to entertain ourselves and the games we played were some of the most fun games ever. I walk by my old grade school every morning on my way to work. A generous benefactor donated a lot of money to the school in the last few years so the street that used to be blocked off for our "recess" has now been closed for good, an addition has been made to the school, and there's a playground now - with a "big toy" and swingset and jungle gym. I wonder if those kids still make up their own games. I wonder if they're having nearly as much fun as I did before it was a playground, when we'd come inside from recess with our clothes full of grass stains from the boulevard and elbow or knee scrapes from the concrete street. I wonder what those kids would think if they knew their playground was once a city street. Nothing was fenced in, no safety precautions were taken save some orange cones indicating the street was closed. I wonder how jealous they'd be to learn that every winter the snowplows would plow the road and the parking lot across the street and deposit all the snow onto one corner, creating a gigantic mountain on the corner of our "playground" and that became our only playground toy as we'd swarm to it, race up it and begin throwing each other off of it in a wild version of "King of the Mountain". I'm sure the changes have been for the best. Things perhaps aren't as safe as they used to be, and the building and the land needed the updating. I can't help but feel a little sorry for the kids there today though - they may never know the thrill of a heated 4-square tournament. *************************************** P.S. To the boy who was running around and around the block flailing his arms about and jumping for joy in nothing but his swimming trunks and goggles during the brief downpour last night? Man. If only you were about 20 years older... *************************************** Still Reading: The Shipping News. I am *almost* halfway through it. It is still an incredibly strange book. I still haven't quite figured out the point. Recently Saw: The rest of "Training Day" last night. Man. That was some fucked up shit. Denzel acted the hell out of his character and I can see what all the hoop-la was about. It was good. There were some cheesed up parts towards the end that I probably could have lived without - but overall - it was good. |
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