Fly, Fly Away

I was driving along Harlem Avenue this morning when two Presidents’ Day memories dropped into the car for a visit.  There used to be this bowling alley on Harlem, the Mont Clare, that we’d go to on said holiday when Clare was in grade school.  Truly, the family that bowls together either collapses under the weight of all the bowling balls members throw at one another, or it grows stronger from the shared adversity, or everyone laughs their heads off.  We pretty much did the second two.  They tore down the Mont Clare a few years ago and put up an apartment complex that looks to be modelled after a New York City tenement.

So, if you’re going to have one Presidents’ Day memory, you may as well have another.  Number two for me derives from Clare’s sophomore year of high school; the travel coach wanted to play in a holiday tournament.  Where, you may ask given that Chicago in mid-February can pass for Siberia?  Inside?  No, in beautiful sunny Orlando.  Just hop on a plane and pay, pay, pay.

Travel softball for us was one sticker shock after another.  If the coach had had his way, the team would’ve gone to Orlando in February and Colorado in July, for a major college exposure tournament; the nationals’ tournament—and I have no idea why they called it that since there were any number of them—was scheduled for Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a week or so after Colorado.  Talk about frequent-flyer miles.

Long story short, parents and players voted against Orlando, and we opted out of going to Colorado.  In the perfect world, we would’ve done both, which is what the top-tier teams do, costs be damned.  The idea behind travel sports is for kids to play as much as possible (that is, if they’re good enough to start.  Otherwise, bench players tag along for the geography lesson and an occasional at-bat.).  Bigtime youth sports is just like bigtime poker; you ante up either way.  We just didn’t have the money to play that game.

I wonder how many high school teachers this morning confronted classrooms full of students groggy from three or four days of sports and travel?  The dealer takes two cards….