The Balls of Summer

My husband and I were relaxing by a pool on a recent trip to Tucson, AZ, when a beach ball caught our eye. It wasn’t the bright colors that drew our attention, however, nor even the joyful way the breeze caught the ball, causing it to bounce merrily past our chairs. We retrieved it to examine because we noticed a giant caution warning, printed on one whole panel, which was too obtrusive to ignore.

What we read astounded us. First, in very large letters, was the warning: “Use Only under Competent Supervision.” Do you suppose some people would prefer incompetent supervision instead? And then, in several different languages was printed a warning, along with all the licensing information, admonishing us not to stand on the beach ball. To make their point even clearer, the manufacturers drew a sketch of a foot on a beach ball with the international symbol for “don’t do this!”

You know what I’m going to say. We both became nostalgic for all the summers of our youth when people knew just how much supervision children needed, and knew not to stand on beach balls. If you did try to stand on one, you didn’t do it twice! That’s how we learned in the “good ol’ days!”

This whole experience started me thinking about all the balls of summer. Foremost, of course, is the baseball and how stadiums across the country this summer will be full of fans wiping hot dog mustard off their faces and waiting for their favorite batters to hit one over the fence! These same people will be whistling “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on the way to their cars.

Golf balls are most prevalent in summer, too, as they land on greens, sink into holes, or find their way to nearby sand traps, bodies of water, and neighboring lawns. An older woman in Florida claims that she hit a low ball over a body of water and an alligator jumped up and swallowed it! She messaged a golf site asking how she should score that shot.

I hope there still will be plenty of kick balls around this summer, too. My sisters and I played that game barefooted every day in the summer until it began to get dark and we ran home for supper. Soccer balls, bocce balls and juicy, delicious watermelon balls will no doubt appear at many picnics and family reunions, too. It’s summer, folks. Use competent supervision as necessary, but have a ball!