When I was growing up in Parkdale, our neighbourhood was, except for one girl, Norma, free of females of my approximate age. There were probably a dozen boys of my age. This made for a rather testosterone-fuelled environment. In fact, it was common to hear that the boys were going to go to Ginger McKay's tractor junkyard and break some tractors, or that someone stole their mother's smokes and people were going to meet at the back of the park (down by the manhole) to smoke them.
I say 'common to hear' because I seldom took part in such events. In fact, there were three of us, me and my two best friends, who chose not to go along with most of these deviant activities. As a result of our non-conformist decisions, we three were dubbed 'The Fairy Gang'. I suppose if they were a more literate group, they'd have called us 'The Faerie Gang'. This didn't necessarily cause rifts or divisions amongst us, the kids of the neighbourhood. We all got along pretty well during times when they weren't off causing havoc. We all played baseball, football together. We all played huge games of neighbourhood tag almost every summer night, and street hockey most every other night. We all got along well. It's just that we three were sometimes referred to as "The Fairy Gang."
Being upright and moral kids, we kind of embraced the handle, even though we understood the underlying implications. In fact, in later teenage years, when some of the kids upgraded their deviance to more serious vandalism and petty crime, there were some of the other kids who started hanging out more with us. They became unofficial members of The Fairy Gang.
One day, we were all playing football in the back field. It was the perfect field for playing football. A large rectangular, empty field of mowed grass that was contained within the center of our block. It was basically the field that was in back of everyone's back yard. On this day, I was relegated to blocking and blitzing duty. I wasn't pleased about this. I wanted to be a receiver, my usual position, but for some reason, I was blocking and blitzing.
Begrudging my position, I played half-heartedly, to the dismay of my team-mates. At one point, my lethargy and lack of effort caused me, instead of blitzing, to absent-mindedly pick up buttercups or dandelions. Of course, this behaviour was incongruous to a lineman on a football team, and it didn't go unnoticed by Moe, the boy who was built like a tree trunk. He called me 'Nature Boy', and naturally, the nickname stuck.
So, here I am, Nature Boy of The Fairy Gang.
11 comments:
I think I definitely would have been your friend. My gang hung around a little patch of forest near my school in Moncton by Jones Lake. We called it 'Fairyland', so Nature Boy would have fit right in. That's where I took my first drag of a cigarette and where I first kissed a boy (Paul Murray with the soft lips).
My 'Fairyland' nickname was 'The Teacher', because I was always telling everybody that we were going to be late for school of we didn't hurry up.
Parkdale had some pretty good athletes way back then. Sherwood kids often played baseball, football and hockey games against Parkdale, all very important events. We (Sherwood)competed against Parkdale in "The Ice Sports" (there is a blast from the past) held at the old Forum each winter. There was fudge sales, and what would become called as short-track speed skating, with the big hockey game to conclude the evening. These two cultures eventually merged at Ch'town Rural High School, with some of the best hockey played at Sherwood Sportsplex by players from Sherwood-Parkdale.
I was routinely (well, two years in a row, grades 5 and 6) the fastest skater in my age bracket at The Ice Sports. Ice hockey was not my game, however, having once assisted in scoring on my own net.
Across the street from my house, in the park there was (still is) a chain-linked-fence enclosed tennis court that was fantastic for street hockey. That was more my game. It was there where we all witnessed Moe (the guy who dubbed me Nature Boy) throw up after getting a slapshot tennis ball in the nuts.
Why are you smiling?
What is amazing when I think back is that all those sporting events and "big games" against Parkdale were done with absolutely no adults. No parents yelling, no adults as referees or umpires. Yet, everything was done by the books, and it was still pretty serious stuff.I don't think kids handle their spare time anything like we did in the late '60's-early '70's.
We have we so over-organized games for our children?
PS Such a great series of posts!
We HAVE over-oraganized play time for our children. There have always been classes offered in karate, hockey, ballet, fencing, swimming, violin, and so on, the difference now, is that parents are enrolling their kids in at least 3 at a time, leaving very little or no time left to PLAY. Just play...with their siblings, or nieghbourhood buddies at whatever they want to play at. Like Wayne said, no parents, no adults, no referees.
We enrolled our son in soccer a couple of summers ago. It was okay, but it was too goal-oriented. Our son was 7 or 8 at the time, and they spent far too much time, in my opinion, focusing on fundamentals and skills and not enough time just playing. At that age, I say "skills be damned. Let's just run around."
We adapted the Soviet approach in the '70s. back then, Russian kids were chosen from the collective and placed in the sport they best suited, whether or not it was the sport of position of their choice, all to maximize chances that one major talent would emerge. Their mindless, collective approach to hockey made them look like robots compared to the individualistic players from Team Canada in '72. Suddenly, it became all about producing winners , not about having fun. Hence, the present drug-problem we have in sports today. But, that issue is for another time. You will be hearing alot more about it shortly in the media.
Going further, have our children lost the art of play itself. If they have maybe they have lost the key to most of how we learn. Don't we learn so much by "playing". What do we learn at school - to obey? To become dependent on some one to teach us? To learn that learning is boring?
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