Backyard (Continued)

 Our garage was separate from the house. It had a brick wall that was perfect for throwing a lacrosse ball against. We even drew a net on the wall with chalk, and put little circles in the corners to practice our sharp shooting, it was perfect (almost) – see the problem is there was also two full size windows on either side of the net, and as we tried to fine tune our shooting for the corners, the ball did tend to get away from us sometimes. Oops. Dad, was so good at fixing windows. Our lacrosse games were the best. I have been playing lacrosse for about 46 years, and I am still playing. I have played at the highest level. I have played for Canada against the U.S. in front of 16,000 fans at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I have played field lacrosse at John Hopkins University in front of huge crowds. I have played all over Canada. I have loved every minute, but I can tell you this categorically. The best lacrosse of all time, the most fun, the most competitive level I ever played was with my friends in the back yard of my house when I was 10 years old. The numbers did not matter. If I was by myself, I would practice against the wall (and break some windows), if there was only two of us, we would take turns playing goalie, and we would take shots, 5 longs shots and 5 comer inners, and see who got the most goals out of 10. From there any number worked it didn’t matter. 15 guys, you split it up, stick checking allowed, we used a tennis ball, that way you could wire your shots as hard as you want…..which caused a few stingers (of course) – no refs, no penalties, no time clock, we just played. First one to 50 wins, depending on the day. It did not get any better than that…..and all of a sudden, we didn’t know this at the time, but we started to get really good, are stick skills got better and better, we were a backyard of future “stars” of the game. That is where it all happens. It was the same on our ice rink, split whoever was there up, and away you go, the best babysitter any parent could want, we were there all the time. Our house was the place to be, lacrosse, hockey…..and let’s not forget the trampoline. The “community” trampoline. Everybody wanted to jump on it. we quickly realized that jumping on the trampoline, was quite often followed by kids falling off the trampoline, so my parents quickly came up with a simple rule, that in order to jump on the trampoline, you must have a note giving permission to do so, not sure if it was a legal document but it was a good idea. We came up with all sorts of competitive game here as well. The ‘sock’ game was the best. You would roll up a pair of somebody’s socks (usually stinky) and you would all stand around the outside of the trampoline, and you must hit the jumper, from the knee down (this rule was implemented early on after a few errant head shots and shots to the groin area to some competitors out of action for extended periods) – anyway you hit the jumper below the knee, and you are on next, it was a lot of fun.
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