by Aw <expletive>, they've "improved" my favorite flying field.
For eight years I've been flying on a regular basis at the
secondary athletic field at the local community college,
Northlake College, in Irving, TX. It isn't the best but it ain't
bad and it's not far away.
Over the years I've also flown at a bunch of other places, of
course, but one by one the nearby fields have been worked on
by the local Parks and Recreation folks and slowly but surely
they've all been "improved" by the addition of 50-foot light poles,
backstops, fences, and the rest of the paraphenalia that
accompanies organized sports that involve large groups of
people whacking balls with some sort of implement or body part.
The sole survivor was, fortunately, my favorite. (I guess the college
doesn't have the money the Parks and Rec. people have.)
Well, today that changed. I arrived as I have many times in the
past, only to find the formerly glorious 50 by 100 meter field had
sprouted various "youth-sized" soccer ("football" for the non-US-
based amongst us) goals, including one right in the middle of the
field. It's not even the College people who are doing this, it's the
Irving Youth Soccer people who -- by virtue of superior organization
and political connections with the Parks and Rec Department --
already *have* the rest of the open space!
Now, I don't have anything against folks who feel compelled to
make the youth of Irving race around in the heat of the north-
central Texas summer (yes, folks, it's still *hot* here). I suppose
it builds character and keeps the coaches off the streets. But why
did they have to take the last big empty space to add a mere two
soccer pitches to the hundred or so they've already got?
Let's see, I think I saw a really big field in the town six miles south
of here where a commercial development went bust or is barely
still alive...
David Ehnebuske