Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

Article submitted by Joseph Yukish

My sister lives in Southwestern Pennsylvania near Waynesburg, Penn., famous for the Summer Rain Day Celebration each July.  The town she lives in, Rices Landing, is on the Monongahela River and has about 2,000 residents (or possibly less).  In early August, I traveled from Tucson, Ariz., for a reunion with my sons, their families, and my sister’s children and families at my sister’s home.  The boys drove up from their homes in Greenville, South Carolina, and we had a grand time.

At the time I was a three-month-old pickleball enthusiast, beginning to play on one of the four courts in our Tucson development earlier this summer.  I am addicted to the game, have played at various other venues in the Tucson community, have joined the USAPA, and have offered to assist our local Ambassador, Tom Starrs, in any way he sees fit.  As I bragged about becoming NOT a “pinball wizard” but a “PICKLEBALL wizard” to my sister, she informed me she had never heard of the game.  I checked with the local YMCA in nearby Southwest Pennsylvania towns and cities, but they did not offer pickleball.  I brought along paddles, and played with my nieces on the street outside my sister’s house, but we needed a net.

My sister had recently replaced the flooring in her house.  I went out to her burn pile and found the old baseboards her workers discarded.  Using the baseboards, some nails, duct tape, and some chicken wire I found in my sister’s shed, I created a pickleball net.  My sister’s neighbor let us use her driveway to prop the net between some large foundation blocks I found at my sisters.  My oldest son, used his experiences playing ping pong, to put some wonderful spin on the balls he returned.  The entire family understood Grandpa Joe’s new passion at age 70 by the end of the weekend.