| I was strolling down the alley one morning in Chicago | | | | was already a hardened pro, and I actually set national |
| when I happened upon a paradise. | | | | records that year. Having played against tougher |
| Kids were on swings, climbing on the rooftops of | | | | competition in my school grades, that final Little League |
| miniature houses, and making a lot of noise. | | | | year was gravy. |
| I poked my nose through the chain link fence, and | | | | Still, age is used far too often to exclude, and that's |
| asked one of the merry makers: | | | | what the Chicago nursery school episode showed me. |
| "How old do you have to be to get in here?" | | | | My older sister once tried to comfort me by saying, |
| "How old are you?" he shot back with a smart aleck | | | | "Gary, you'll find in life that you're either too young or |
| tone. | | | | too old, and you're never just right." |
| "I'm three," I replied, summoning most mature voice. | | | | Sounds a little like that line from "Alice In Wonderland," |
| "Well, you have to be four," he taunted, and then | | | | doesn't it? Jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but no |
| scrambled away, intent on frolicking with no more | | | | jam today. |
| intrusions. | | | | Well, I have an answer. |
| This story means a lot to me, of course, because it's | | | | Don't disclose your age to anybody unless you're |
| utterly true, and it points out that age limitations are | | | | under the threat of death. |
| awfully arbitrary, aren't they? | | | | Whoever is asking is probably up to no good. |
| I don't know who made that cut off, or if the kid | | | | He's probably comparing his accomplishments to yours, |
| invented it on his own, but barriers like this exist, and | | | | or wondering how you've retained your good looks, or |
| I've never liked them. | | | | he just wants to erect an exclusionary barrier. |
| Throughout school I was considered young for my | | | | When asked, try this reply, just to vex him: |
| grade, having been born at the end of October. | | | | "I'm young enough, and old enough, which means I'm |
| Actually, this worked to my benefit because I got, what | | | | just right." |
| I considered an extra year of Little League. | | | | And then tear down that chain link fence, and go have |
| By the time I was with my twelve year-old peers, I | | | | fun, wherever you like! |