Here’s to more playgrounds

IT WASN’T easy breaking through the papal rehearsal traffic in Manila last Wednesday.

But brave it I did  as I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to revisit my age-old playground that provided a happy childhood of sports, blissful play and lifelong friendships.

Philippine Normal University (PNU) invited me to be one of the recipients of its Eminent Alumni awards during its anniversary week.  I spent seven joyful years as an elementary student in its Laboratory School, doing rigorous schoolwork and playing sports as an integral part of my youth.  PNU was honoring 29 other educators, businessmen, government officials, religious and entrepreneurs for their various achievements.  My presence was for my work in broadcast and print sports journalism.

The school on Taft Avenue is a teachers’ training school that began in 1901.  Its decades-old buildings have remained practically the same as a war, natural calamities and the passage of time have spared these solidly built buildings.

But what catches your attention is the wide-open grassy field.  I arrived early for the awarding and soaked up all the nostalgia the playing fields brought back.  Memories of joyful baseball games played with a tennis ball during recess as well as feisty intramural football and basketball games came alive.

We had a real baseball area back then, complete with a cage, mound and bases. I stood where our home plate used to be, where the large Manila City Hall clock would stare down to remind us of the time.  We hated it then because it kept reminding us when it was time to go back to class.  We bucked the unforgiving sun and the pleas of our student teachers to not come back to class sweaty and tired.

We never listened.  We had our regulation bat, gloves, bare hands and battered tennis balls.  We had our tired, worn out footballs and basketballs.  How could anything else really matter?

Fast forward to today: The PNU field was still filled with students playing football and basketball and a few college folk were trying a human tug-of-war game. It was a happy sporting sight even if the field of our youth was no longer as green or as spacious as before.

I wondered if our own youth today had their own playgrounds where they could run freely, enjoy the thrill of competition and imbibe the values sports can offer.
How many open fields have been converted to residential areas?  How many playing areas are still fit for real sports?  How many plan to build a playground and not just a basketball court in a municipality?

There are many frustrating aspects of Philippine sports that we may not be able to remedy in our lifetime.  It would however be a grave mistake if we did not build and maintain reasonable playing areas for both the youth and the public in general.  We need open spaces like Rizal Park, Quezon Circle, the Cultural Center Complex and school spaces so that play and sports can be taught and made part of one’s life.

Standing again at PNU’s home plate, I could again hear the bounce of the tennis ball as it darted out the infield.  The shouts of my playmates were alive returned.  This was our playground and we are thrilled it is still there for other children to play in.