One of my fondest memories of growing up in OKC was running wild on the green hill at All Sports Stadium, and—whether it was during an 89ers game or a Big 8 Baseball Tournament match—joining a hundred other kids in a chaotic mosh pit every time a foul ball came our way.
If you never got to experience it, you missed out.
It was like an all-ages, gender-neutral demolition derby—a knock-down, slobberknocker, JR-worthy brawl where teens squared off against wild packs of adolescents and fearless grade schoolers, all for one treasured baseball.
Although I never managed to snag a ball from the scrum, the bumps, bruises, and a consolation mini-helmet of ice cream taught me that sometimes the fight itself makes you stronger—even if you walk away empty-handed.
Sadly, thanks to today’s overprotective nanny state, kids rarely get to experience this kind of free-for-all. And when they do, grown-ups are quick to snatch the ball—and their paramotor—and go home.
Via KOKH:
On Sunday, Noah Reine took to the skies in his paramotor for a fourth time as "The Flying Santa." Several years ago, he started a tradition of airdropping toy paratroopers around Christmas.
Most recently, an excited crowd of approximately 100 people gathered at Harrah Heritage Park for the event.
However, he said a few adults and teenagers ruined the fun by pushing children around to get the toys.
A resident captured a video showing attendees diving to get to the toys.
Reine shared he was disappointed by the less than a handful of individuals who engaged in "pushing little kids out of the way, stealing this, this little toy. Stealing it from them... that's not what this is supposed to be about."
Channel 25 shared some video from the toy drop, and sure enough, there is video of some dude diving to the pavement to score a mini-paratrooper toy.
I guess if you’ve never been to a Thunder game and watched an old woman toss a kid down a flight of stairs to score a free Hanes Beefy-Tee Balon Blaster shirt, it can be a shocking thing to watch.
Here’s more:
According to Reine, most of those gathered at the park were respectful.
"Unfortunately, we live in a society where there's just a couple people that just, they just ruin it for everybody. And because of what happened this year, I doubt I'll ever do it again," he explained.
Know what else is unfortunate? We live in a Generation Soft society where some dude is canceling a cool Christmas event just because a couple of people ruined the fun!
I understand he doesn’t want a kid to break an arm or whatever, but sometimes you have to accept some collateral damage for everyone to have a holly jolly good time.
Anyway, instead of making the event a distant memory like 89ers Hill, I think Reine should cap the age at 12, or better yet, hold an adults-only toy drop in McLoud.
Another solution would be to charge people $5 for every toy they catch. Then they won’t have to worry about any adult pushing over a kid for one.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
