So this weekend, I finally accomplished one of my Major Life Goals – I bought a ping pong table. In my teen years, I had a Big Brother (you know, from Catholic Big Brothers and such) who had been something of a champion in his college years in Chicago. He was the one who turned me on to the sport, bought me a custom-made paddle, and set me to playing at a rec center near his house.
That was 15 years ago. Now that I’m trying to take up the sport again, I’m having a very, very hard time finding places to play casually. I’m about 30 miles east of downtown LA, and none of the rec centers in my area seem to have ping pong tables anymore. A local billiards establishment used to have a table a few years back, but that’s gone, too. The only places I could find are two table tennis clubs that really aren’t near me at all.
Now, when I talk to friends who are originally from the midwest or the east, I hear many tales of how everyone and their grandmother had ping pong tables in their basements and everyone used to play all the time and Oh What Fun. Granted, we don’t have much in the way of basements in LA, but still – is that the only reason table tennis isn’t as popular out here? Or is there some large-but-underground group of table tennis aficionados that I’ve yet to locate?
I found another thread from last year that talked about the enjoyment of watching others play during the Olympics, but is anyone out there still playing for fun?