Dilapidated Memories

We all get nostalgic at times, some more than others.
Some times, I think back to the happiest part of my childhood and most of them were up until I was 11 or 12-the elementary school years.
I've mentioned Fountain Rock school before but living in a rural area that occasionally saw a bad element (the mean streets of Fairplay/Tilghmanton had nothing on NYC! LOL) there were occasional good things that mixed with bad things.

It truly was a sign of the times that at eight years old, I was walking along the Sharpsburg Pike and walking to various places to play.
I played pickup baseball through those years at the District 12 Ruritan and faced players like future major league pitcher Mike Draper, played tackle football at the "beautiful" Fairplay Carnival grounds which was had to be the local equivalent of this lovely facility,but of the local pickup games,what I enjoyed most was basketball.
Basketball was played at the abandoned Fairplay Elementary school against people that aren't household names outside their households and often shoved off the court.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes when we read books, we insert backgrounds from our own lives for the environment around the story?
Well, anytime that I read about inner-city basketball-the backdrop is usually this tossed aside schoolyard (it was already vacant even by my childhood).

It was this court that had an astonishing lean from left to right that saw many a ball roll off the court that was my childhood home base (Other than a hot attic to hunker away and read or play with figures).
Practicing jumpers as my favorite college or pro players of the time and especially Pistol Pete Maravich, I usually fared very well against extremely limited competition until the older kids arrived.
And when I mean older kids, I mean high schoolers and guys outside of school age.
I used to really despise this one kid that was just two years older than I that was always allowed to play because he had an older brother in this bunch.
He was one of these guys that thought he could play, but it really was because he was "hands-off" because of the brother.
Between that and an elitist attitude, I never changed my opinion of this guy throughout school...

I thought about those days one day last March and snapped these pictures on the court.
Decayed, with one goal completely removed and the other with the same backboard that I played on standing, but beyond repair, the court still looked much the same.
Grass growing in between the blacktop and an increasing sun bleached surface wasn't much different than all those years ago, but it's odd returning to a ghost town.
I can't imagine having my kids go places alone at the age I did and considering how kids have so many activities these days,I have no problem believing how this rural court has fallen in such disrepair.

It's funny and sad when you look back at the places of your youth and how time marches on.
The place I grew up is similar yet different.
The snack bar (the only place you could get ice cream locally and a future post) has fallen victim to a more mobile society and only a gas station and liquor store a mile up the road in our "bitter rival" Lappans remains of the places that I went to pass the time as a kid.
You remember the things that you miss when they are there.
I remember looking across the street from my grandmothers' porch and seeing a long gone billboard advertising Pepsi and the snack bar and the Coke scoreboard at District 12 was small little nuggets of a time gone by.
I guess it's people like me that keep the nostalgia merchandise business rolling!

It's funny looking back at those days on the playground that is no more.
I guess the kids in the area now are in the higher priced new homes that have basketball hoops in their driveways and have no need to play and it does seem that there are fewer children living in the older homes in the neighborhood that need places to play.
The Fairplay school closed before I was in school, but for kids of my age, it still was the little focus of the area and I guess sooner or later, someone will just tear the building itself down.
But until then, the school and the court will stand steadfast through the seasons as it stands guard with all the ghosts and memories.....