50 years ago today, an little piece of Americana was created.
I'll go out on a limb and bet that just about everyone reading this has owned at least one set during their lifetime. If you have not actually owned one, I will bet that you have at least used one. Childhood summers practically required it.
This invention is still widely available, and I'm guessing under $10. An innocent enough thing, created by a father, a former semi-pro ball player, who wanted to help his 12 year old son learn to throw a curveball without doing damage to his shoulder. The prototype was made from a perfume package.
Theories differ on how it works. Aerospace engineers say that the difference in surface area on one side, as compared to the other, effects the way the object passes through the air. Users, aficionados and Peter Pan types who take this particular object a bit more seriously than I certainly ever did, point out that this theory only applies to the item when it is brand new. Once used, it seems, it's a whole new ball game.
As a matter of fact, I discovered that there are people who deliberately modify this item to reverse the intended effect of the design. Heading into competition, unsuspecting opponents fall one after another--expecting one thing, and getting quite another. Modifications to the design utilize combinations of sandpaper, duct tape, athletic tape, electrical tape (arguments abound about which is best), and pennies.
A companion item may be modified as well, with its hollow cavity being filled with rolled up newspapers, sand or water. User comments and anecdotes on one website refer to this as a 'weapon', and at least one person confessed to breaking his brother's arm with one.
Non-purists can ditch the companion item altogether and go buy a replacement that might cost several hundred dollars. These people get in fights with the purists. If it came to blows, the non-purists would win.
Speaking of fights, you might have gotten into some where the rules of engagement were concerned. Because playing in different venues evokes different rules. "One sewer/two sewers" might be the rules on a street in the Bronx. "The corner of the doghouse and the back fence" might be the rules in a suburban yard. "The chicken coop and the mailbox at the end of the driveway" might be the rules on an Iowan farm. Heck, just moving from one yard to another within your own community could change things up enough to require negotiations about the number of people per side or allowed use of imaginary players!
Typically, these things got worked out just fine. It taught us all something about compromise and working together for a common goal---namely, stop talking and start playing. A valuable lesson, really, and one that has probably served most of us in our adulthood. This was all good stuff and no one got hurt.
Yet, in April 2009, the New York State Legislature, having nothing better to do and apparently having forgotten their own younger years, put this icon of American childhood on a list of "dangerous activities" (even without the modified gear), and prohibited it in summer camps. However, such uproar came from sane grown-ups across the state that they tabled the proposed legislation 11 days later. Unlike "JARTS" (remember those!?), it is hard to see these things as "dangerous".
Even Eric Cartman knows it is just about impossible to hurt someone with one of these things.
So today, on the 50th anniversary, of this beloved implement of fun, this thing that taught us how to play well with others, how to negotiate and agree on a common set of rules, and how to gain advantage by modifying our equipment, I can say only this: Play Ball! WIFFLE Ball, that is!
There is absolutely NO tie-in between the featured piece and this message, but I hope you'll check it out anyway. It's on the 'Odds-n-Ends' page of the site. Link below my signature.
Until next week--Google "Cartman WIFFLE ball bat" if you want a giggle. The music is clever.
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