No Wonder People are Nostalgic

The Sandlot gang

Remember the movie The Sandlot? The movie chronicled the summer of a group of boys that spent every day of their summer playing baseball in an old vacant lot. The major appeal of the movie was in its nostalgia. Viewers remembered "The Good Old Days" when life was simple and kids were allowed to be kids. I loved that movie and hoped that my kids could have the same type of summers.

Boys playing Wiffle Ball on self-built field

Well, today an article in the New York Times confirmed that those days are officially dead. The story talked about a group of boys in a small New England town that found a vacant lot and transformed it into a small version of Fenway (complete with a green monster). They did all of the work themselves using mostly old, discarded pieces of wood. Sounds just like a Sandlot/Field of Dreams plot (interestingly, Field of Dreams is mentioned in the article, but The Sandlot is not). However, it is what happened next that told me that the good old days are dead. Neighbors of the property filed complaints and even hired a lawyer to stop their activities. Among their concerns were things such as decreased home values on neighboring property, liability, lack of adult supervision, risk of injury (note here, they were playing Wiffle Ball, not even baseball), etc. Some of the comments in the article are very interesting. My favorite was when one boy commented that is seemed that the adults preferred them to "be inside playing Grand Theft Auto." So, what happened? When did we get so litigation happy that kids can't even play anymore? And, most importantly, who's responsible for this attitude? I would like to sue them.

-JH