Tennis on Crack

I have been anxiously awaiting my time to post this blog with that title!

I recently visit to my hometown for my 30th High School Reunion, and I had been looking forward to playing tennis against a backboard that I used to play against all the time when I was a teenager. Just a need to revisit that time and place, especially since I've been playing again this last month.

But this real-time visit was preceded by a 21st Century visit via Google Maps. (I really should be boycotting Google Maps since they have been violating privacy rights all over Sonoma County by trespassing on private roads in order to photograph homes for Google Street View. Now they are saying they are not going to stop and will challenge the privacy rights!)

But I did use aerial view and street view to check out my old beloved backboard at the intersection of Alexandria and Hammer. Yes, it was still there. No, it didn't look like it had become a "bad" part of town.

So DH and I got up at 6:30 am (a very good idea to get up early in Stockton in the summer if you plan any physical exertion) and headed over. Beautiful morning, still cool and of course very clear. None of those low clouds and coastal fog of Sonoma county!

What Google's satellite or car mounted spy eye couldn't show me, however, were the number of cracks in the court surface. Big fissures. Fault lines you might say. (Get it, fault lines, in a tennis court...) It gave me a new kind of practice where I had to second guess which way the ball was going to bounce off a crack. Sort of a combination bumper pool/tennis game.

We played for a bit on the back side of the backboard (a double-sided structure) since the surface was a little better, and the sun not in our eyes. However, we quickly realized the disadvantage to playing on the side that can't be seen from the street. In a public park. I'm used to bits of condensation here and there in Sonoma county--that fog I mentioned is ever-present even in the summer. Stockton, however, had been in the 90s all week. That was not condensation in the corners of the backboard. We left a couple balls at the court. Some dog will be extremely happy to find them, pre-scented and all.

DH had brought DD's child racquet to play with since he didn't have one at that point (small one and pink, very cute). I used it for a bit, but realized the grand difference between a $12 racquet and a $270 one. (Now, I must interject, I did not pay $270 for my racquet. There is a definite racket when it comes to racquets. Big 5 carries a dozen or so models and at any one time half of them are on sale. Usually at a deep discount. I paid about $70. We found similar deals when we bought DH a racquet later that day.)

We got in a good hour of tennis-on-backboard, worked up an honorable sweat, and headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to a Baptist church service. (Yes, possibly another post of its own. The music was great.)

The poor condition of the backboard courts left me with greater respect for my current courts which are in perfect condition. If I were Bill Gates, I would donate the money to have them resurfaced (and all the others in town while I am at it!). But alas, I am a mere professional organizer still paying off my daughter's preschool loans (just kidding...sort of ), and I can only broadcast my appeal to the wealthy residents of Stockton...hey, donate some money to parks and rec and get those backboards in shape! They are good not just for tennis, but racquetball and handball. Let's keep our kids in shape.

Ok, time to go. DD had her first birthday party sleepover and the cherubs have awakened.

Margaret