As Tom Goes By: My Life in Tennis

Printable Version At Golden Gate Park in 1928, age 6, with my mother. In the late 1920's, when I was about eight, I tagged along with my parents one day to Golden Gate Park, curious to watch them play tennis. Even as a boy, I was awed by the layout. Twenty-three courts, with men and women all over the place dashing about in their long skirts and long pants, with rackets in their hands, batting a ball back and forth. Hardly any kids. This puzzled me because it didn't look like a difficult game. I found a ball, borrowed a racket, and started banging it around on a far court, getting the feel of the thing. Felt good! So I got in a new habit after school of going out to the courts and just kind of hanging out, knocking the ball back and forth with my buddies. One of these boys I still enjoy hitting with seventy years later. That would be Ted Myers. He went on to become a noted physician, who turned his skills after retirement to improving medical care conditions in the third world. Back to the past. Every now and then I'd pester my mother...