Back in the 1930s, Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola grew up across the street from each other in a working-class St. Louis neighborhood known as The Hill, where they played baseball, football, soccer and other sports together.
They both grew up to be Major League catchers. Yogi had a Hall of Fame career, and Garagiola became a TV personality who wrote an underrated book, Baseball Is a Funny Game.
“We played all the time,” Berra told the New York Times in 2011 for a story on their old neighborhood. “We would go right after school and play until the 4:30 factory whistle. That’s when our fathers got off work and we had to go home and open a can of beer. Then it was back outside to play.”
That sort of camaraderie and joy is muted these days, as the COVID-19 pandemic requires all of us to keep our physical distance from others, to socially isolate, and in many cases to not go out in public at all.
On Friday, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore even cautioned Vermonters to turn around if they saw a crowded parking lot at a trailhead.
“We have to be thoughtful about all of this,” she said, saying people shouldn’t drive more than 10 miles to find a place to hike. “Now is not the time to explore far-flung places in Vermont.”
It wasn’t always like this, of course.
Ten years ago this spring, as these Look Back photos show, athletes shook hands after tennis matches, huddled on the mound during a close baseball game, goofed around on the sidelines, and jostled for position in all sorts of contests.
It will happen again. There’s too much fun to be had on the fields, courts, golf courses and hills of the Upper Valley. But, for now, we’ve got to be patient.
Just consider it an extended rain delay.
John P. Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.