November – truly a wonderful month to enjoy the great outdoors… It’s not too hot and not too cold – it’s just right. Our beautiful weather should be enticing all of us to step outside. I am sure the golfers are having a field day. Golf must be a wonderful sport. In the little farming community where I grew up, nobody knew anything about golf. Our school had a baseball diamond and a basketball court. Those were our two sports and that was it … you chose one or the other or perhaps, even both. If you learned to swim, you learned in the creek.
Recently, the Rio Grande Valley hosted a Cricket tournament. Curiosity got the best of me – What is this game called Cricket? I had to google that for sure. At first it appeared to be much like baseball, but more complicated. Did the Americans adapt Cricket and make for a simpler game? Or did the Europeans and Asians take our baseball and develop a more complicated game? Next time we have a cricket tournament, I hope to go watch and see how it is played.
Outdoor sports should be encouraged – especially team sports. First of all, sunshine and Vitamin D are essential to good health. Team sports teach us how to work together for the good of the whole. What better life lesson can that be? We can have a good time while staying healthy and learn a life lesson all at the same time. So, let’s go outdoors and enjoy the weather.
The Rio Grande Valley is dotted with gold courses – Harlingen alone has three courses – one of which is public. Now that is a sport I never learned.
Soccer games appeal to me – I have watched many on television. However, the game has become more popular recently.
Tennis is another game that was not available to those of us who grew up in farming communities. It was not until I had been out of college for at least 20 years that I decided to learn how to play tennis. Surely, I could learn the game in a year – so I challenged a male tennis player to a match at the next yearly convention. We played on the same day that Billy Jo King played against a male opponent. Poor thing! She lost and so did I. However, my silver cup consolation prize for being a good sport made up for the loss. I enjoyed the game, so I kept on playing tennis just as long as I could.
About the same time, I decided to learn tennis, I tried my luck at golf. I signed up for group lessons with some other women. Even though the instructor seemed to think I was a natural, I did not pursue the game. Now I wish I had.
Whatever your game – be it pickleball, shuffleboard, or golf or the more active game of cricket – go outside and enjoy our wonderful great outdoors.
