Sunday, August 9, 2009

A Clarification and Some More Thoughts

In my earlier post, I referred to a baseball game and I didn't mention that this was an exhibition game...at that point in time the Brooklyn Dodgers had a farm team based in Saint Paul and the New York Giants had the Minneapolis Millers as a farm team, and about once in a blue moon the real teams played exhibition games in both cities...the game I saw was at the old Lexington ballpark in Saint Paul.

While I experienced a great deal of innocent activity...like playing kick the can and Red Rover in the alley, which had so little traffic as to almost becoming our constant playground. And going to the playground to baseball with friends and no adult interference or supervision...we were quite capable of playing by the rules and elected our own umpires to call balls and strikes...these games were not competitive like Little League games, but were more about everyone playing and improving their skills.

At this same time of innocence in other areas the Racial tensions were growing and Blacks (who were called Colored People, or Negroes) were beginning to organize the early stages of the NAACP and other Civil Rights organizations, and there were lynchings, and police beatings, a incarcerations for being at the wrong place and being Black.

All of these things and events were occurring against a backdrop of the Cold War with Air Raid practice and hiding under your desks and chemical and biological test conducted on unknowing neighborhoods that would have repercussions for generations to come.

More in my next posting...

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