Memories of Summer Nights of Kickball

I saw the above post on Facebook recently. There are many variations of this on the internet. 

I am definitely in that in-between generation of playing outside and inside on video games etc. We did both. 

I have great memories of playing kickball in the neighborhood outside during the summer when I was in middle school. 

We played with kids older and younger. There was a large age gap between the youngest and oldest kids, but that didn't matter. We all got along. 

It was mostly guys and a few girls as well. Whoever wanted to play, could play. 

It was kids on my block and the couple of surrounding blocks. 

We would mix up teams, with older kids and younger kids, depending on who was playing any given night. 

Most of the time we played at the end of my block where two other blocks connect. It was a wide sort of dead end with the side roads flaking it. This is where we would put home plate and hit towards the narrowing going up the street. 

Sometimes, we would play on one of the side blocks, where most of the people who played lived. Likely, this was if someone was told then needed to stay close to home. This was tougher because it made for more of a narrow field, to avoid going onto random people's property. 

The bases would be the edges of curbs, sewer grates or other spots that could be noticed. Occasionally, we would use chalk. 

We were always very respectful of cars and would move to the side right away. Knowing me, I probably moved when the car was at the top of the block. 

We would often play after dinner and only end when it got too dark to see, or if enough people were told they had to go inside, that we didn't have enough to play. Sometimes, we would play before dinner, take a break and eat, and then go back out. 

You know how I am in terms of being competitive, and the fact that I am a baseball person, I definitely took the games too seriously. However, from what I remember, we all had fun. That is what is most important. 

We played for a couple of summers. We started when all of us older kids were in middle school and played until at least the two or three of us older kids went into high school. Then it kind of just disbanded as lives changed and technology increased. 

Fun memories. Sometimes, I wish we could go back to this age. 

Thanks, Facebook, for the inspiration to remember and write.