How times have changed! The other day I attended a sports event and happened to spend much of the time talking to a couple of friends in the crowd. I use the term “crowd” loosely because it was more a small smattering of people than a crowd. One person I visited with remarked on how sad it is to go to high school games when the crowds are so small that it seems the only ones in the stands are moms, dads and other relatives of the kids on the court, ice, or whatever the venue may be.

I walked out of the gym into the cold December night and started thinking back to when I was a kid, atten...