230826 Sports and the Neighborhood

When I was a kid I was always playing sports, even though I was terrible at all of them.

In my neighborhood, we were always picking teams and playing whatever sport the season brought. I was always the last one picked on a team. We were lucky to have a school twenty yards away from my house. The school was a public school and we were all Catholic school boys. There were some local stars that shined brightly in the district sports. I was not one of them. I was always on one of those teams and I kept the bench warm for all of them. One year we only had 8 players on our school basketball team. Only 5 played the whole season. One time the starting team was missing one of its players, so I played that one game and I was remarkably unuseful. One benefit of never playing was I didn’t have to wash my uniform after every game. The worst season was soccer, because it was cold and standing on the sidelines in a thin jersey and shorts was chilling.

I remember my neighborhood well, even today I can picture it. There was one confectionery, one tailor shop, one grocery/meat market and one combination beauty parlor and soda fountain. I went to the confectionery every day to get my mother a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes. While there I would look at comic books. The women that owned the place would allow a kid to trade 2 of his comics for one of hers. Most of the time I didn't need money to have comics to read.
The combination beauty parlor/soda fountain was off limits for me because mom had heard some nasty rumors about the goings on there. Well, that made me curious, any time I had a dime or a quarter, that’s where I headed. A dime bought a fountain soda and a quarter bought a malted milk. I never saw any shenanigans in there, but the beauticians working there were all young and very nice looking women. I suppose that was what sparked the neighborhood rumors among the married women in the neighborhood.
The combination grocery/meat market was owned by the Nabb family and was not heavily patronized by us more mobile folks. The prices there were higher than a supermarket so those with a car went to a supermarket. Only the people without cars went to Nabb’s market. The husband and wife owners did not like young boys coming in their store, for what reason, I did not know. However the Nabbs had a beautiful daughter, perhaps 3-4 years older than me. Occasionally she would be at the cash register and that was why the young boys went into Nabbs, hoping to see her and possibly speak with her. Perhaps that was why the Nabbs didn’t want young boys in their store.
I was rarely ever allowed out by myself after dark. One glorious night the snow had fallen all day long and into the cold night. I wanted to get out there and roam around in the freshly fallen snow. My parents relented and I was set free. I walked all over the school grounds and the three playgrounds. No one was there. I was about ready to head for home when up the steps came and appeared to me, this gorgeous creature, the Nabbs daughter! We were alone at night; my dream had come true! We had a snowball fight and ran about until she got cold. She then invited me to walk her home, she had a key to the front door of the grocery. Her parents lived in their quarters in the back of the store. We went inside to warm up and we had a Pepsi Cola together while we talked. I was in heaven being with the girl of my dreams! Heaven ended too soon and I never saw her again, yet her memory is still with me.
I went back to the old neighborhood in 1968 when I was on leave from the navy. My family had moved away from there. I wanted to see the old hood. I wish I hadn’t done that. The old home I had spent 18 years in was gone. It had been torn down and there was a bare lot there along with several other places where homes once were. The stores all had bars installed on all the windows. It was like driving through an urban war zone. I never went back there.