Pickleball a racket game all can enjoy

If it has the word "pickle" in it, the first thing I think of is the "running bases" game we'd play for hours at a time. That game was all about learning how to throw a baseball accurately and getting other players caught in a "pickle" or rundown between two bases.

But that backyard game has nothing to do with a sport called pickleball that is growing in popularity and made its local debut in the St. Charles Park District winter brochure.

Cris Anderson of St. Charles is surely the most excited about this game being offered at the Pottawatomie Community Center. After all, Anderson approached the park district years ago about adding pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and pingpong.

She had learned about the game from a friend who was playing it in Huntley, and she was certain it could find a home in the Tri-Cities. She convinced some park district officials to try it, and they were quickly hooked. So the game will be offered on a "walk-in" basis starting Jan. 1 for those 18 and older from 2:30 to 3:55 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the community center gym. Best of all, it's not an expensive sport, costing only $3 a session or $25 for 10.

"Have you ever heard of it?" Anderson asked me. Of course, I had not.

"Oh, you would love it," said Anderson, ever the promoter of athletic activities because of her past as a premier volleyball player in her native Brazil. "It's an easy-to-learn racket game."

The game is played on a badminton-size court, with players hitting a Wiffle ball with an oversized ping-pong paddle and underhand serve in an 11-point game.

Anderson has been playing with family and friends in a vacant space of the Colonial Building at Randall Road and Dean Streets, but is looking forward to the park district offering space.

"You can draw your own lines and play it on a driveway, or on a tennis court," Anderson said. "It is great that the park district will be offering it inside on the basketball courts."

The fact that older and younger people can play the game together is also a plus, Anderson said.

In that regard, I suppose one could say it is also like bowling or golf.

I watched some pickleball games unfold on YouTube, and it appears to be a form of "tennis" that I could actually handle without blowing a hamstring.

One bump fixed: It's usually midwinter or later by the time I start complaining about massive potholes that are capable of wrecking your car, jarring your bones and knocking dentures out of your mouth.

But it's good to report that at least one annoying bump in the road has been fixed. This one surely jostled a few commuters either coming or going from Geneva's Metra station because it was right in the middle of Cheever Avenue, in an area in which it was difficult to dodge because of parked cars or vehicles traveling in the other lane.

If this one had been let go until after the winter, we might have lost a few cars in "Cheever Canyon."

More years of ice cream: Clinton Anderson, director of operations for Colonial Ice Cream, sent a note to help me clarify something that was in my column about the west-side Colonial Café moving to a new location along Randall Road.

I mentioned that Colonial has been in business for 50 years, and that is true, from a retail standpoint. That's when Colonial hit the retail market again after World War II.

But the Andersons can accurately make the claim that they've been serving dairy products to the region for more than 100 years.

Colonial has its business roots in 1901 when Simon Anderson took over a milk dairy route and turned it into ice cream and milk manufacturing. In the 1930s, he was joined by sons Paul, Warren and Joe K., and eventually started a company that opened stores throughout the region, selling milk and ice cream.

The end result is that we've all eaten plenty of Colonial Ice Cream through the years.

Incentives for walking?: I was out of town for a week recently, but noticed that some sort of National Walk to School Day was unfolding and kids were being rewarded for walking to school.

So, as an aging baby boomer, I will sound like my parents did for years - What's this world coming to?

If I had a reward of some sort for every day I walked to school, I'd have a house full of rewards. No, I didn't walk 5 miles in snow up to my hips. That claim still rests safely with our parents and grandparents. But I walked a mile each way - every day. We didn't have backpacks in those days, so riding a bike wasn't always an option if you happened to have a few books. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually did bring home books - once in awhile.

I understand that parents are more cautious about letting their children walk to school these days, but maybe it wouldn't hurt for available parents to take turns in walking a group of kids to school each day.

I know what you're thinking: It's just another crazy idea that won't see the light of day.

Thanks for tunnel tidbit: A reader sent a note to thank me about my recent information regarding the pedestrian tunnel under Randall Road near the Dean Street intersection. She said she had a little trouble finding it (which is why the emphasis of the column was that signs are needed to let bikers and walkers know where it is), but once she was able to use it, she was amazed to find how bike paths east of Randall can wind through such beautiful parts of St. Charles.

We agreed that the path west of Randall Road isn't so easily connected to others that would take you west to the Great Western Trail, or north toward South Elgin along Randall.

I know Jim Breen of the St. Charles Park District has mentioned the need for a better connection, but a few others have to hop on that bandwagon.

dheun@sbcglobal.net