Basketball

  Since I seemed to have a knack for basketball, as exhibited at Trenholm Park, my father thought it would be a good idea to put a basketball goal in our backyard.  He got a sheet of plywood and nailed it to a tree for a backboard.  He also got a basketball goal and net and attached it to the plywood.  The tree was at the end of our dirt driveway near our backdoor.

 I invited some friends over to play.  It was fun at first, even though there was a major problem.  The basketball wouldn't go through the net.  It would just get caught up at the bottom and not go through.  To remedy this problem, my mother gave us an old mop to poke the ball out of the net.  Because of this problem, we couldn't play a game.  Anytime that someone got a goal, someone would have to get the mop to get the ball out of the net.  

 Another problem was the plywood.  It got wet in the rain and started to peel apart.  It got to the point, where my father had to take the backboard down which just left the goal nailed to the tree.  Because the net wasn't working right, he took it down, so we just had a hoop.  I gave up on basketball, but the hoop stayed up.  Eventually, the birds and squirrels used it as a perch, so it was put to good use by them.  

 I could have been another Pistol Pete, if the plywood hadn't come off.