Frisbee

I recall the summer of 1967 when my oldest brother bought his first Frisbee disc. We lived on a street named "MacArthur" -- named, presumably, after the famous WWII and Korean War general of the same name. Our yard was too small to play Frisbee, so we went into the street. The street was not heavily traveled, so we had enough uninterrupted time to throw the disc back and forth.

Note: if someone did spot a car coming, we'd cry out: C-A-R. Not "car!" but the spelling out of each letter. We'd often repeat it: "C-A-R ... C-A-R." Odd, isnt' it?

Today the predominate Frisbee game is Ultimate, but we played a different game. Given our lack of an open field, and our lack of imagination to come up with anything different, we created this game:

• Two teams squared off against one another, some 50 feet apart on the street. The number of players on each team did not matter. The number did not even need to be evenly balanced.
• The Frisbee was thrown back and forth. An attempt to catch the Frisbee with a drop resulted in one point. Points were bad.
• Before the game we agreed on how many points constituted a loss. Typically it was 5.
• Various strategies were created to force errors: throwing very fast; throwing curves; throwing floaters; throwing to my little sister.
• Would-be receivers had the option to not attempt to catch a throw. So if something was coming faster than they thought they could catch, they'd let it sail past them. Of course, it was then their obligation to chase down the Frisbee and return it to play.
• The game had no time limit. Sometimes we'd play into dusk and beyond, barely able to spot the Frisbee. Games often ended shortly thereafter.

As a consequence of this I got to be a pretty good and accurate Frisbee thrower. In college we'd play Frisbee out on the open commons, and I was recognized as one of the more accurate throwers around. I could generally put the Frisbee in a 2-foot square from 30 yards out.

Later, when Frisbee Golf took hold, I became somewhat proficient in that as well.

I sometimes wonder if today's kids are missing something with their Nintendo and X-Box games. A $1 disc of plastic entertained us for hours. It gave us exercise.

Am I just being an old fart?