July 25, 2024: Boys Club Days

This time around, we signed my son up for a different type of summer camp. This time, we signed him up for a “sports camp” for 12-13 year olds; talk about a perfect match. The cool thing about it is that it’s at the park right by the house. Another cool thing was that it was dirt cheap. But yeah, back to playing sports all day… man am I jealous. If only I could play sports all day…

Once upon a time, this was true for me too; I remember the Boys Club days. OK, it wasn’t “all day”, but it was all the time. The Boys Club opened at 330pm. I would get out of school at 230, get home in about 15 minutes, and finish any homework I had in about the same time. Then I would walk 2 blocks to the Boys Club and get in just as it opened; it was great. They had a game room. From pool to bumper pool to ping pong to foosball, as long as you found somebody to play with, you were set. They would have weekly tournaments too; sign up at the front desk, get the brackets together, and go. Actually, there were multiple game rooms, split up by age group. They had a swimming pool too; that was the one part of the Club I really didn’t use that much… no particular reason, I just wanted to be playing games instead, in one of the game rooms, or of course, the gym. The gym is where the most action happened. There would be different leagues throughout the year. From basketball, to football, to soccer, to floor hockey, to dodgeball, to kickball, to handball… we did it all. Besides the individual leagues for each sport, they would do one called “Group Teams” that combined them all; I think that was my favorite. As time went on, I would be one of the team captains, having to walk around the neighborhood, picking up the kids on my team to make sure we had a full squad to play the game that afternoon/evening. The Boys Club also sponsored a baseball team at the local park; I played on that team my whole childhood. Yes, the Boys Club was THE place to be growing up.

Besides growing up there, this is where I had my first job. It was the summer after freshman year; I was 14 years old. I was responsible for working in the gym part time during the summer. My main job responsibilities were to keep kids off the fire escape, break up fights, and dust the gym floor before I left. Of course, between all of these difficult tasks, I played in the gym; talk about a dream job. Sure, I didn’t make much; I’m sure it was minimum wage for 1991, but… I still remember when I got my first check. I cashed that bad boy and went straight to NikeTown to buy my first pair of Air Jordans; money well spent, let me tell you. You see, my parents would buy my gym shoes up to that point, but they would only spend $50… anything over that, was on me; the Jordans were on me with my first ever paycheck. I loved the Boys Club days…