ANYONE FOR "AMERICA"?

SUMMERTIME IN THE FORTIES,,,,
        LASTED....FOREVER!
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Clovis, New Mexico, 1943......

You  really needed six for a good game of 
"AMERICA."

It would not have been surprising for a little
kid,  along about 1943, living in a nice, new
small two bedroom house, over there on Reid 
St, near the new MEMORIAL HOSPITAL---to
hear a knock on the front door...open it and---
there on the first day after school was out at
old La Casita, would be three or four neighbor-
hood kids, all dressed for play---one juggling
the most worn, beat-up football you ever saw.

It was Art and Bob, Charles, and James.

"Wanna PLAY AMERICA?" "Sure," let me 
finish my corn flakes." (This was before the
the days of the sinful Fruit Loops.")

Soon we had six out in the middle of Reid 
Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth Streets.
Reid was nicely paved by then.

"AMERICA" was not a contact game---it was 
a pass or kick game. Goals were set up a
block apart...anything you could find marked 
a goal.

Your side kicked and a caught kick was three
points for the opposition. A caught pass was two
points. If they missed,  your side got the points.

(I'm setting this down--FOR  HISTORY!) When
a team amassed eight or ten points, a star
player would take eight or ten GIANT STEPS...
and kick or throw the ball far over the heads
of the opposition, thus winning the game--if they
couldn't catch it.

I wonder if, today, kids take a break from their Tweeting
at all and maybe say: "Hey, how 'bout a game of
NEW WORLD ORDER?"

Oh, oh! Did I mention: our football was probably...
UNDER-INFLATED?!

-----30-----
MIL'S PLACE
2/15/15