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The Marblehead Current loves to get letters to the editor. There are just a few rules you need to know.

Generally, letters should not exceed 500 words. The Marblehead Current reserves the right not to publish submissions over the word limit and may instead return the letter to the writer for editing.

Letters must include: multi-generational game and it’s exactly what we need in our amazing town of Marblehead. different backgrounds keeps you tuned in to what’s going on out there. When playing, laughter is sure to ensue and laughter also reduces stress. Players range from age 3 to 90 in Marblehead! Playing pickleball is significantly related to helping to reduce depression. When playing, your endorphins and serotonin levels rise which is good for battling depression. correct. The wilderness is right over there.

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Email submissions to info@marbleheadnews.org.

While the Marblehead Current will make every effort to let writers have their say, it reserves the right not to publish letters.

Teens are playing together, families are playing together and grandparents are playing with grandchildren. The court is a perfect size for those little legs too!

Part of the appeal is it does take some coordination, you have to be physically healthy to play but it’s easy to learn. The court is smaller than a tennis court and the net is lower. You run in short sprints and the impact of hitting the ball is minimal, so it’s easier on the joints. With practice and some instruction, you’ll be having some great rallies in no time!

But predators aren’t really the gravest risk we all face. Life presents many hazards. Take the weather. Back home, you don’t want to get caught out in a blizzard or a tornado. Out at sea, the storms can turn deadly in a hurry. Particularly if you are on a wooden fishing schooner in 1846.

My first visit to the Marblehead Museum brought me face to face with this. The excellent collection of J.O.J. Frost paintings there includes a rendering of the Great Gale of 1846, in which 11 vessels were lost. Sixtyfive men and boys went down into the deep, leaving behind 43 widows and 155 fatherless children. Frost captures this calamity with a folksy straightforwardness: men thrashing in the water, debris tossed about on foamy waves, unconcerned seabirds

David C Rodgers, Post Commander

Why we love pickleball

To the editor: Pickleball in Marblehead has attracted over 600 players! We are a growing and thriving sport in Marblehead! Pickleball is a alighting to scavenge. The everyday way he depicts the hull breaking up and the water rushing in connected me to my own experiences of loss.

The information in the museum read that when Frost himself went to sea, he experienced a similar storm and survived.

Then he never went to sea again. Can’t say as I blame him.

The exhibit also features a preserved stern board of the Warrior, one of the ships that went down that day. I can imagine the widows and newly fatherless children gathering to that piece of sea-beaten wood like a talisman. Touching it, perhaps, as remnant and reminder of their lost beloveds.

Naturally, I did my best to keep my mind off all of this as I delivered young Waylon to Stramski Park for the first day of sailing camp. The lad is a Marbleheader now, and the language of Marblehead is the sea. At 12, he can learn a new language with ease. Off he strode with new life jacket in hand to

Research shows that players burn 40% more calories during a 30-minute pickleball game than during 30 minutes of walking, increasing their heart rates to within the moderate-intensity exercise zone. And a study of people ages 40 to 86 who played an hour of pickleball three days a week showed improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure and cardiorespiratory fitness. Other health benefits include boosting the immune system.

Pickleball can help improve balance. Pickleball requires hand, eye and foot coordination. Your balance, your movement and your coordination all get better as you play more which will help in preventing falls.

As we grow older, being social and playing pickleball with friends of every age and from start learning the lessons I learned on the farm and in the mountains. Hard work, teamwork, discipline: the skills that will help you move through any wilderness.

At the end of the week, he unfurled his new lexicon: stern, jib, square knot, rudder, bowline. He also had found the balance he and his shipmates needed to keep their vessel afloat. In keeping with this, he’d learned how to right and climb back aboard a capsized sailboat. I told him that perhaps it was best not to capsize in the first place? He rolled his eyes at my landlubbing snark and said, “Dad, sometimes the sea doesn’t give you a choice.” it’s not just the physical exercise that gets you hooked. It’s also the mental workout as well as improving mental acuity. Some chatter overheard at the courts:

Indeed, son. Best to know how to right yourself, climb back aboard and sail on through any wilderness you face. And the wilderness that surrounds us here in Marblehead is a fine place to learn.

As always, if you’ve got an idea upon which I can embark for a Marblehead First Time, drop me a line at court. merrigan@gmail.com.

Retirees that play pickleball restore a sense of purpose after leaving the working world. Players start to form an identity as they play. They can continue to get better, and they’re able to compete and to have that satisfaction of winning contributes to their quality of life in many ways.

And when it comes to mastering the skill, the sky’s the limit. You can always improve at pickleball. That’s so satisfying! How many sports are we able to get better at? At any age?

“Pickleball has given me a way to be active for a couple of hours, break a sweat, and feel really good about myself.”

“Pickleball is cheaper than therapy.”

“I leave with a smile on my face and sweat on my brow!”

Lisa Spinale Franklin Street

CORRECTION: The senior spotlight in our July 5 edition included the wrong photo of Dana Denault. Here is the correct photo of Denault. The photo last week was of Denault’s close friend, Bob Gotschall. The two men have gotten quite a laugh out of the mix-up.