Creative Recreation

Remember those carefree days of outdoor games? The long ago and far away pre-digital days — before the masses were addicted to wretched mind-numbing computer games like Grand Theft Auto — when kids flew kites, held marbles matches, played hide and seek, and built sand castles? Well, those days are still here … at least on the streets of Mandalay in Myanmar.

 

When I was in Mandalay I was delighted to see the kids on 90th Street had constructed their very own putt-putt golf hole, utilizing a huge pile of sand in front of a nearby building. They let me borrow their plastic putter and I took a turn at whacking the tiny little, uh, soccer ball. But alas, I failed at making a hole-in-one, which was rather embarrassing, seeing as how I was once a winner of the Andy’s Trout Farm Putt-Putt Tourney in Dillard, Georgia. But then again, that was about 35 years ago!

 

On the other side of the street two boys were engaged in an intense marbles competition, with young Mr. Ye Thit emerging as the winner. Several blocks away, on a northern extension of the same street, some novice monks at a monastery were playing football, turning cartwheels, and playing with sticks and makeshift toys. In my book of life that counts as healthy entertainment!