Stickball

I watched a fascinating documentary on stickball last night on Channel 13. It's a game that began in NYC in the 1920's and remains in NYC to this day though it's not always played in the street anymore. Too many cars these days. www.stickball.com

Stickball Poetry

By Margery Wynne

My childhood,
the building blocks
that formed my identity,
my character.
Humble beginnings,
a city child with
cement instead of grassy fields.
Stickball in the street,
not little league.
I didn't know that I was deprived.
How can you miss what you've never had?
Now my children have grass, trees,
soccer teams with fancy equipment.
But I don't see the joy in their faces
that would envelop me, the exhilaration
when I slammed that rubber ball
with a mop handle
and scored a triple.
A child with no backyard
or a child with no broken mop handle.
Which ones of us were deprived?