I got an email this past week from a friend that left me somewhat dumbfounded.
It seems that 15 or 20 men indulge in a sport called Ultimate Frisbee.
They have been playing this insane game every Sunday morning for about eight years now, and for the last four years they have been getting together to toss their Frisbees in the park at Pinecrest Gardens.
Now, these guys aren’t kids; they are adults – grown men – who, for some reason, enjoy running up and down a grass field chasing the guy who has the Frisbee. It’s a strenuous, athletic sport and they exert a lot of energy, and the sounds they emit are not unlike those that we hear during a women’s tennis tournament. Yeah, grunts and groans, and maybe a few screams of agony when someone misses catching a Frisbee. Now, these old guys — don’t get me wrong when I say “old” because they are in my age bracket — are having some fun on a Sunday morning, getting some much needed exercise and utilizing a public park that their tax dollars have helped pay for.
So, it comes as a huge surprise to me when my friend tells me in his email that our Village of Pinecrest is asking them to move the start of their games from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. (when it is much hotter) because they are making too much noise. It seems that some of the neighbors who live in houses immediately adjacent to the park are upset that these old geezers are making too much noise and just having too much fun. So, they have asked the Village Parks Department to put an end to the early Sunday morning game of Ultimate Frisbee.
Come on! For crying out loud, don’t the people who run things in our Village have better things to do than tell a bunch of older men who are enjoying themselves and getting some exercise that they are making too much noise, and they have to stop doing what they are doing because a few crotchety old neighbors don’t like the fact that they are having so much fun?
Please, people, if the sound of laughter and grunting and a few shrieks of pain are bothering you so much that you have to call the director of the Village Parks Department to complain, then maybe you should ask your doctor for a few more nerve calming meds. Or maybe you should simply close your windows a little tighter and turn up the AC.
Besides, our Village is facing much bigger issues today, such as balancing a budget that is projected to be about $1 million short in the next fiscal year. So, why don’t you complainers just roll out of bed on Sunday morning and go join those guys for a game of Ultimate Frisbee. You might enjoy it. But, for the sake of whatever you believe in, this is not an issue that warrants involving Village policy makers or our police department.
I’m tempted to say “get a life!” or get your butt out there and join them!
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