disturbed when the group officials decided to proceed with this activity. Determining that the “lightening had passed”, the athletes ran in the pouring rain. Son was also involved for two years with a Khoury baseball league organized in the area. I volunteered to be score keeper which required my attendance at every game. At times this volunteer activity was annoying to me as I could not watch the game because I was too busy keeping an accurate count and score. In addition to weekend games played, much practice was required during the weekdays. The Khoury league home games and most practices were accomplished at a field bordering a major highway. The first time I viewed a baseball fouled off onto this major roadway, I became concerned and nervous for the drivers of vehicles on this highway (later I became use to this occurrence). Fortunately, no driver that I saw during this time was injured nor a vehicle damaged. I remarked to another parent attending the game that the location of this baseball field was dangerous for drivers on the highway and especially for those people driving a convertible, roofless automobile. I believe the reply was that this was true but there were no other fields in the area where the team could play. One day, after dropping son off at baseball practice, I had to retrieve our ill Golden Retriever dog from a veterinarian. After arriving at the office, the veterinarian informed me that it was likely that our dog suffered from a terminal illness. As this was not verified, I decided to bring our beloved pet home. Two men working at the veterinary office picked up our dog and proceeded to carry her to my car. Suddenly and robotically, they dropped the dog on the floor of the office lobby. Maintaining my composure and politeness, I reaffirmed to them that I was taking the dog home and to please carry the dog carefully to my car. Upset with this experience and with the dog in the back seat of the car, I hurried to retrieve son from baseball practice. As I reached the main road, I realized that due to a power outage that every traffic light was not functioning on a major United States Florida highway causing a traffic nightmare. Worried about son, I was relieved and grateful that a baseball coach stayed with him until I arrived at the baseball field about one hour after the designated practice time ended. The team to which son belonged achieved second place in the area in 1996 and first place in the area in 1997, where they were involved in playoffs with other teams in the city. In the autumn, son joined a basketball team that occupied his free time during this season. It is appropriate to mention here some dangerous actions regarding the collection of money for children’s sports related activities. On a busy, multilane highway, I repeatedly observed children running onto this roadway during apparent traffic stops (turning lane arrows not included) to collect donations from drivers for sports uniforms and other sports related activities. Also, infringements and invasions of personal privacy were noted at some sports stadiums where officials demanded to search individual’s pocketbooks and bags.
As a subscriber to the city’s newspaper, I began to read an increasing number of disturbing and deranged stories. At some point, I ceased to read this paper in its entirety and selected only those stories that were less bizarre. There were many stories in the newspaper that reported on children killing and murdering themselves and each other with guns. Some stories stated that parents had insisted that the guns were well hidden and that they could not understand how the youngsters found these dangerous weapons. Also, there was a placement that was shown in the newspaper on a regular basis that I thought to be odd. These were lists, contained in several pages of newspaper that showed