“I'm all for Wiffle ball and apple pie and baseball and the American flag, but there are plenty of fields in town they can use instead of building something in people's backyard,” said Liz Pate, who is building a new house behind what's now home plate. “If I come home at 6 at night after working all day, I want peace and quiet. I can't have that. I have dozens of people behind my house playing Wiffle ball. If their parents think this is so great, let them play at their house.”
Via Instapundit [1], “Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come [2]”
As a kid, I remember my friend Duke and me wandering out alone in the forests that surrounded his house at Connestee Falls [3] (which wasn't the gated community that it is now) for hours at a time, and later, roaming around the neighborhood when his family moved into Brevard [4] proper.
I also remember wiping out rather spectacularly a few times on my bike (say, landing in a ditch, twice, same one, same day, trying the same stupid trick each time) and managing to come out okay (bloody, but no broken bones and a greater skepticism of my “elite” skills on a bicycle).
My, how times have changed.
At times, I really wonder what happened to us, how did we as a nation become so fearful? So coddling [5]?
Where did we go wrong?
But rest assured, whatever happened, it wasn't in my back yard.
Sheesh.
[1] http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/021485.php