It's not because of the French Open. It's my kid's idea and he doesn't know the Grand Slam from the Triple Crown or the Stanley Cup.

He saw some kids taking lessons at a park we frequent. He was glued to the fence watching the fuzzy, yellow, bouncing ball. He asked for tennis lessons and I agreed to sign him up. He started telling his classmates that he was signed up for tennis lessons.

Then I learned that lessons start at age 6, both in town and at the Y. Who gives lessons to four-year-olds?

Kenny's classmate had her birthday party at her parents' country club, the Atlantic Club in Manasquan. Oh, it's a decent place. I looked over their web site and discovered that they offer tennis lessons beginning at age 3! So, I signed Timmy up and it begins just after school gets out.

Tennis rackets have changed in the twenty years since I played.

I couldn't distinguish the racket ball rackets from the tennis rackets, especially the kid-sized ones. Tim takes a 21" and I picked up a cheap 25" for myself. Funny how expensive the string-less ones were! :-) I bought him a white, collared shirt but couldn't find any white shorts. I need to pick up white tennis sneakers for him, too.

We've played a couple of times since buying the equipment. He likes it, probably because it's something he can do by himself. He's kinda solitary that way.

My serve and ground stroke aren't too, too bad after all these years. My feet are slow, way slow. Maybe by the time these kids get good enough to really play, I'll be back on my game.