Growing up in Bath Beach, I distinctly remember the old Italian men playing bocce at the park on Cropsey Avenue between Bay 46th Street and 27th Avenue, as well as at the park on Shore Parkway near 17th Avenue. They were a neighborhood fixture, much like the Tai Chi ladies are today in the park on 84th Street and 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst or the Eastern European men playing chess are at Cropsey Park near Bay Parkway. Heck! There was even a group of old guys playing bocce at Seagate Beach Club. I remember our neighbor Andy used to see them playing bocce and sing, “Oh the bocce ball, the bocce ball. Everybody loves the bocce ball.”

These old guys were a community within a community. Maybe they were just trying to get away from their wives for a few hours or maybe they were widowers. Still, maybe they just really liked playing bocce. Who knows? But these guys were out there all the time. And they were competitive! But they were clearly enjoying every moment of the game and every moment of each other’s company. Plus, they were willing to let young kids, like my friends and me, watch them play. It was a true learning experience, but not in the way you might imagine.

Years later, as these neighborhood bocce courts have fallen into disuse and/or disrepair and many of those old men have passed on, the lesson that I took from those old men wasn’t how to play bocce. Rather, the lesson I learned was how important community is to simply being human and to having a happy life. As Barbra Streisand once sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” Community is everything.

So… Where is your community? Is it online on Facebook or with a Zoom Meetup Group? Is it in a religious organization? Is it in a meetup.com group that meets somewhere local a few times a month? Is it at the park playing chess or doing Tai Chi? Is it at a bar like that 80s/90s sitcom Cheers? Is it sitting outside of your home on your block with your neighbors?

If you don’t have a community, find one because it’s so important to being alive. And, if you want to be a modern day bocce guy, check out Union Hall on 5th Avenue and Union Street in Park Slope - they have a bocce court!

Drop by the office some time if you’d like to chat.

Your Friend,

John

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