We had several pretty beat up sections of lawn as the boys grew up. They served as the pitcher's mound and home plate for Wiffle® Ball home run derbies, or as the bases for pickle games. Time waits for no man and the boys eventually grew up, left for college and began their adult lives. It took quite a few years, but the bare spots in the side yard were slowly reclaimed. It was always a little sad to see the grassy patches and listen to the deafening silence where little boys had grown into men.
That all changed this weekend, though. For the first time in nearly three years, the whole family was together and healthy for a any length of time. It took Joseph and Matthew no time at all to dig through the old toy barrel in the garage to find some old Wiffle® Balls and a bat. They were old and cracked, so they made the trek to Walmart to buy new ones. We also ordered a bag of balls from Amazon for Saturday delivery so they would have enough to play.
The home run derbies began again in earnest; only now it included their wives, too! We spent hours over the five days we were all together creating new, stressed areas in the lawn for the pitcher's mound and home plate. Our yard was, once again, filled with the sounds of the whack of plastic bat on plastic ball and the joyous laughter that went along with it. There were cheers for the hits that went all the way across the street and jeers for the swings and misses or ground balls.
The kids headed off their separate ways yesterday, but the sounds of our little boys at play still echoes in my mind.
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