As a kid, some of my worst moments of shame, sadness and guilt took place when I lost stuff that was given to me.At age eight we lived in Vancouver for a year and whenever we'd toss a ball on our lawn it'd inevitably eventually get lost in these prickly fat shrubs.
Then when we moved to 227 Westminster I had my bike stolen after leaving it outside for my mom to carry in, the first of my many bicycle heartaches over the years.
So every summer when I see balls stuck atop the shed at Oxford Park I relate to the sadness of the kids helpless to get 'em down.
I sometimes go up with a ladder to grab 'em but they never get back to their proper owners.
I once bought about 10 basketballs and would actively offer to lend 'em out to kids who seemed like they didn't have anything to play with in the park on the condition they returned them. But they would tend to lend them to another needy kid in turn and the balls soon disappeared into the mists.
I would venture to guess that such badly-designed structures have stolen thousands of balls from sad kids over the decades in this city.
It'd be great if the city would finally put a sloped roof atop this and other such structures, as it would prevent such situations and also allow people to play near the buildings even hit tennis balls upon the walls, something that people seem to want to do a lot more of.
But I guess we'll have to wait for some sports association to ask the politicians to do at a public meeting because that, sadly, seems to be the only way things get done.