What's 'leisure' anyway?

Subject: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 04:51 PM

I was out the other day and I saw a road sign saying "Leisure Centre", and it occurred to me how strange it is that I knew without even going there it didn't mean a centre for any of the things that I'd call "Leisure" at all, it just meant some big gym for people who like taking physical exercise to adjust the shape of their bodies and that kind of stuff. What used to be called a sports centre.

A Leisure Centre surely ought to be somewhere where you could go and find a whole range of leisure activities. Ir'd be somewhere with a library and a cinema maybe, and a pub, and somewhere you could make music and listen to music, or have a dance, or hear a talk about something interesting. Yes and I suppose there might be a gym and a swimming pool in there somewhere, but they wouldn't be the centre piece.

Somehow the sporty mob have hijacked the term and limted it to a narrow segment of activity matching their hobby, and the local state has fallen in line civic backing as well. Seems most peculiar.

Is this just England, or does it happen in other places?

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: hesperis
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 05:42 PM

It happens in other places, although I've never seen something called a "leisure center". But true leisure has been rather eroded by the puritans. You have to work at work... and when you're not working you have to work to have fun and keep in shape!

I'd much rather play to work and play to have fun and keep in shape... and have plenty of downtime to recover from the play, and to daydream and to do that classic true leisure activity: nothing. (Too much of nothing gets rather boring though.)

I wouldn't exactly classify a bit of a dance as "leisure" either... but that's the good thing about true leisure. It's what you want it to be.

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 05:54 PM

In North America I think the word is synonymous with 'downtime' by which I mean 'not at your job of work.'

It's pronounced lee-zhure in NA and lezz-ure in the UK

You used to see older folks (65+) here in NA wearing his-an-hers leisure suits--usually pastel green or blue--exactly the same. Cute. Sort of.

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: M.Ted
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 06:00 PM

Here, we have "Leisure World", which, one would think, is some sort of amusement park, but in fact is a residential community for those over 55--

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 06:21 PM

In the 1930s here in the USA many union folks were beaten and died for the right to secure an EIGHT HOUR WORK DAY for all workers. Any time put in longer than that got you your time-pay plus half as much again---called "time and a half". Now, it seems, those people died for nothing.

An old song went:

Eight hours we have for working,
Eight hours we have for play,
Eight hours we have for sleeping
In free Americay.

That was my definition of LEISURE. But no more is that the norm.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 06:42 PM

Well said Art. Leisure is what you get when you've stopped working for the man!

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 06:52 PM

I've always liked the expression "free time".

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 07:39 PM

We have "Leisure and Sports Centres" (centers) here in western Canada, three in my city, mostly supported by the city. Big buildings with all sorts of activities- learning (arts, bridge, etc.,). swimming, gym, exercise equipment, snack stand (to compensate for the exercise and sports), club rooms, etc. plus the usual outside stuff.
Then we have "community centres," in each part of the city. In my area, the centre houses a gym (large enough for basketball), exercise rooms, rooms for all sorts of activities including bridge and clubs (small rental charged), attached outdoor facilities (hockey rink, playground), and a snack bar including beer and liquor service. All of these places prohibit smoking, so even the sedentary get some excercise when they go outside to light up and it's 30 below.
Small towns have at least a curling rink and snack bar, in addition to the sports facilities at schools.

About an even split here between lees-ure and lezz-ure.

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 01:32 AM

Parks and public sites for recreation are considered "quality of life" attributes to a community, and are very hard to defend when the police or the fire employees start crying that they aren't getting paid enough. You never hear recreation folks threatening to strike if they're not paid more, yet if parks and pools and zoos and gyms closed a lot of people would be outraged. When I did my undergraduate work in the Recreation program the department name was changed to "Leisure Studies." It seemed to broaden the scope beyond playgrounds and swimming pools. In fact, anything that a person choses to do for enjoyment in their free time is considered recreational and is a leisure activity. Bird watching. Woodworking. Sports. Sewing. Reading. Gardening. Cooking. Painting. Music. Designing computer programs. It's what we choose to do in our free time.

Last year I wrote a "Sports and Recreation" chapter for a textbook. First thing I did was reverse the order of things and make sports a small subset of recreation. The only way I was able to convince the editors to let me leave it this way was to present my credentials--the degree, and many years of work in the field, as well as six years on an advisory board here in Texas.

Like the line in the Joni Mitchell song, "you don't know what you've got till it's gone," parks are usually the poor step-children when cities work out their budgets. Recreation centers, leisure centers, parks, they can be many things to many people. In general they're underfunded. They do a great deal of the cultural and community heavy lifting in the cities where they exist.

SRS

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: GUEST,Jenny
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 02:30 AM

Hampshire in the U.K. is soon to have Discovery Centres. These will be upgraded libraries and museums which will also have internet terminals, cafeterias, creche facilities, art exhibition spaces and performance spaces for singers and musicians, book and poetry readings, live concerts etc.

They'll also still have library books and museum exhibits.

I don't know why they are being called Discovery Centres unless the idea is that visitors should discover a wider range of leisure activities than would be found in a normal Leisure Centre.

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:25 AM

In Houndsditch in the City there is a leisure centre that is just a video arcade.

Subject: RE: What's 'leisure' anyway?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jan 05 - 03:38 PM

They could have Pleasure Centres. That might be fun... But I think folk music would probably be specifically excluded.