Basketballs serve as barometer

#Middlebury #Seniors

The recreation center is open again! While they tried to do a “soft opening,” word traveled quickly.

Going to the rec center won’t be as it was before, of course. There used to be classes in the middle of the gym, which is surrounded by a long indoor track. Scattered around the interior were basketball hoops and exercise mats.

Now, we’re told, we’ll check in at the front door for a specified time slot (one hour) on the track. At the end of our time period, the center will be emptied and the next group let in. There will be no classes, no use of mats, no basketball … but we’ll have indoor walking.

This is the best news we’ve had around here in a very long time. Indoor walking, while not urgently needed right now, will be most welcome when cold weather arrives. Icy sidewalks send many of us to the rec center, which was closed last year, to walk in winter.

But, we’re told, we won’t be able to buddy up and walk with a friend, chatting as we do laps. We’ll walk alone in the right lane, passing in the left lane if we should overtake the person in front of us.

No, we won’t be able to use the mats for pre-walk stretching (they’re stacked in the storeroom), and no, the guys won’t be able to play basketball (the balls also are in the storeroom). So, why, if there are so many restrictions about using the rec center, are we happy? We’re happy because it’s one small sign that maybe, just maybe, things are inching back to normal.

How will we know for sure? We’ll know, said one wit, if we walk into the rec center and the basketballs are on their racks at the center of the courts. That’s going to be our barometer: basketballs.

© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.