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When I was 9, my father came home with a croquet set for me—an unexpected gift from a man who usually left such things to my mother.
He said it came from the local hardware store, where he bought paint for his jobs. I suspected it might have been a reward for purchasing hundreds of gallons, making the set an early version of a regift.
Its origins hardly mattered. I was the first child in the neighborhood to own anything so exotic, and my popularity soared.
The wooden set included four color-coded mallets and matching balls, two stakes and a collection of metal wickets. My next-door neighbor Bonnie and I played with it so often that first summer that we practically wore it out.
We planted the stakes at opposite ends of the backyard and arranged the wickets in an X, with one in the center, others beside the stakes and two more in front of each one. The goal was to guide a ball through every wicket, strike the far stake and then return to hit the home stake.
But completing the course was not always our priority. We often veered off to attack an opponent’s ball, earning the right to knock it away.
That was the best part. After placing the balls together, a player held one ball in place with a foot and struck it with the mallet, sending the other rolling off course—ideally without hitting any toes.
Some days only two of us competed. On others, we assembled four players and approached every match with fierce determination. We organized qualifying rounds, semifinals and championship games elaborate enough to make us feel deserving of Super Bowl rings.
Arguments sometimes erupted, though nobody threw a punch. An angry player might storm home and attempt to enlist a parent, but adults generally refused to intervene. Their answer was either a warning to stop complaining or a simple instruction: work it out yourselves.
The games continued for years, until we eventually outgrew the set. My nephew inherited it and extended its life before it finally disappeared.
The mallets and wickets are gone, but the memories remain: a group of old-school children, a backyard, plenty of free time and an intensely competitive streak.