The Seaver Ping Pong Table and Whiffle Ball Court -- Post 539 of (Not So) Wordless Wednesday

Recently, I discovered an envelope of small photographs saved when my mother died in 2002 - it was hiding in plain sight in the Genea-Cave! 

Included in the photo cache was this oldie-but-goodie - Randy and brother Scott in the patio at the ping-pong table in about 1965:

By the 1950s at our house on 30th Street, there was not much room for we three boys to play any sport.  The exception was the brick patio (perhaps 12 feet wife by 20 feet long) which had a basketball hoop and net and a ping pong table.  This area was bounded on the west by a circular planter box, on the south by a concrete brick wall hidden by shrubs (with the apartment houses beyond the wall on the south side of the block), on the east by a garden and then the sidewalk on Fern Street, and on the north by the two story apartment house at 2114-2116 Fern Street.  The background 

in the photo above is looking south.

My mother and father were pretty good at ping pong, and Stan and I became fairly adept also as teenagers.  The four of us were pretty competitive by the time I was 22 in 1965.  My brother Scott was only 10 years old in 1965, but was really quick and learned the game pretty fast and by the time he was 16 was probably the best in the family.  We rarely hit the ping pong ball over the wall and had to go retrieve it.  

Many a pleasant summer evening was spent on the patio barbecuing and playing ping pong as a family. 

We also used the patio for whiffle ball.  For whiffle ball, we hit from the northwest corner of the patio, and the goal was to hit it over the south wall or into the street on the west.  Only me, my brothers, and our friends played whiffle ball.  When we got too good at hitting the softball sized whiffle ball, we went to the golf ball sized whiffle ball.  I usually batted right-handed so that I didn't hit the ball over the south wall. 

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