'Tis the Season...for Baseball

While I'm not particularly a baseball fan, it was a part of my life when I was young.  How many of us can there be who don't recall the crack of a bat hitting a ball?  Or the feel of the hard, flat surface of a bleacher in the hot, afternoon or early evening sun?

One of my earliest memories is of my mother, sitting in the old (and I mean old) recliner, with a clipboard in her lap as she watched the World Series on the black & white TV, while she kept a detailed running score of the game.  I don't know what teams played in those games, but I know for most of my growing up years, I was a Roger Maris fan.  Mickey Mantle was a close second.  I also remember Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Johnny Bench, George Brett, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, and Don Drysdale.  Those were the days of baseball.  Of course there were hundreds more, but those were the ones I remember best.

My mom wasn't the only one who watched baseball.  We lived not far from Lawrence Stadium, now Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, which was built in 1934 and has been the home of the National Baseball Congress World Series since 1935.  On summer nights, my dad would attend games there.  My mom would take me, usually in my pajamas and very sleepy, to pick him up when the game was over.  Across the street from the ballpark was a Dairy Queen.  Not the fancy brazier kind there are not, but one where you walked up to the window and ordered.  My mom was a banana split person, and my dad usually ordered a sundae of some kind.  My favorite was a chocolate malt...that I rarely finished and was put in the freezer for the next day.  Frozen DQ chocolate malts are great!  The DQ has been gone for years, but I'm always reminded of it when we go watch my oldest granddaughter perform in the annual ice show or we go skating at the Ice Center (upper left of the stadium in photo), built in 1996.  I've had the pleasure of attending a few games at L-D Stadium over the past 20 years and enjoyed every minute, including the beer that was accidentally dumped down my back by a zealous fan. ;)

Childhood became teen years, and we'd moved to a small town.  I became a Dodger fan.  In fact, like former manager Tommy Lasorda, I've been known to bleed Dodger Blue.  Third baseman Ron Cey was my favorite during those years, but was closely followed by Steve Garvey, Don Sutton, and others.  If I still watched baseball, that would be my team, in spite of KC Royals being only 3 1/2 hours away.  I'll root for the Texas Rangers, too, just because.

When I finally grew up and became a real adult, I went to slow pitch softball games, usually two to three games a week and several weekend tournaments, for most of 20+ years.  I learned to keep score and swore that my backside had to have been as flat as the bleachers I sat on, game after game after game.  There were lots of bleacher tans: shoulders and arms, upper chest and back, and tops of thighs and feet, not to mention my scalp if there was a part in my hair.  I made friends with the wives and girlfriends of players and enjoyed spending time with them on the bleachers.  I learned the rules of baseball and softball, not by playing, but by watching, listening and cheering on the team.  And, oh, the stories I have of those crazy times.  If I had to choose between watching softball or baseball, I'd choose softball in a heartbeat, even in spite of Maris, Koufax and Cey. ;)

So here's my salute to baseball and the boys of summer, complete with a super, upbeat tune and old-time photos that bring back those childhood memories.  Thank you, John Fogarty!

Baseball is the only place in life where a sacrifice is really appreciated.  ~ Author Unknown

PLAY BALL!!! 

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Yes, I'm a Credence Fan.  No, this is not about CCR.  This is about the rain that has been coming down since late Sunday.

Oscar Wilde once said, "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative."  My response to that?  Oscar had his own set of problems. ;)

Normally, rain doesn't bother me.  I rarely see the need for an umbrella or raincoat or slicker of any kind.  Getting a little damp from raindrops doesn't spoil my day.

We need rain now and then to settle the Kansas dust.  And I'm sure that sometime mid-July or August, we'll be wishing it would rain.  But 4+ days of it?  Isn't that a bit of overkill?

And just why did this sudden drenching of our area have to happen during Spring Break?  It's too cold and icky to send kids out to play.  Mud brown would be the color of the day...all week.  Then there's the risk of them getting totally drenched and coming down with this season's worst bug, just in time for break to be over.  That would be punishing me, because guess whose house they'd be sent to when they're too sick to go to school?  Yeah, that's right.  If truth be told, five kids under the age of 10, cooped up in a small house for 4 days, is an invitation to bloodshed.  I'm just not sure whose blood will be shed first.

Let's face it, I wouldn't have survived the 40 days and 40 nights of the "Great Flood" of Bible lore.  After the first week, I'd have offed myself.  I probably wouldn't do well in Seattle, either, although it's on my Top 5 list of places where I'd consider living.  Still, I like a little rain, and after last summer's drought, it really would be nice to see the river at higher levels.  The wide expanse of sandbars is disturbing.  The benefits of rain, in addition to dust-settling, is nice, too.  Daffodils are in abundance, while the plethora of flowering Bradford Pear trees are breathtaking and something that usually don't happen for a few weeks farther into the year.  At least those things can be enjoyed.  This incessant rain can't.  I should be happy that it isn't snowing, because it's been known to do that...as much as 12 inches.  Ahhhhh, Spring!

Summer will soon be here--the temps did hit 80 before the sky decided to open up and drench us--and there's no doubt I'll complain about the hot weather then, just as much as I'm complaining about the rain now. Honestly, if I'd had the pleasure of just returning from a long vacation in Tahiti (does that still exist with that name?), I'd be jabbering on about the beach and the sun and the weather.  With my luck, it would be raining there, too.

Back to CCR and Who'll Stop the Rain...

Stay dry!  Stay warm!  And wait out whatever weather has befallen you.  It'll change.  On that we can count. :)

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. ~ Tom Lehrer

Just So No One Forgets...

MARCH 8

CELEBRATE WOMEN!

A woman cannot be herself in the society of the present day, which is an exclusively masculine society, with laws framed by men and with a judicial system that judges feminine conduct from a masculine point of view.

HENRIK IBSEN, From Ibsen's Workshop

Keepsakes and Memories

In Memory of Davy Jones and those whose music became a major part of our lives in the 1960s.

Okay, I admit it.  I miss the '60s.  Anybody who paid attention or grew up in that decade of mind-blowing changes has to miss at least something about it.  Me?  I miss it all, even though admitting it makes me old.

Music, politics, the entire culture of the country was changed by those under 30.  Fathers complained about long-haired musicians in bands, and mothers feared what their daughters were doing when not under their watchful eyes.

I was ripe for the influence of those who were changing history.  From mid-grade school to high school graduation, I was a child of the '60s and experienced those changes, firsthand.  In fifth grade and barely into the decade, I remember spending time on the playground at school, listening to music on a transistor radio that broadcast AM radio stations.  Everyone was amazed that a radio could fit in a shirt pocket.  Now, our phones do.  As for music, we can download it to those phones, computers (which used to fill several rooms), and players made especially for listening.

My parents bought our first color TV in 1964.  Even my grown kids still have trouble imagining a world of B&W TV.  In '64, TV shows were just beginning to switch to color.  Bonanza was one of the first, and oh, the color of the green, green grass against the bright blue sky were amazing to see in our living rooms.  It was almost like being at the movies.

It wasn't only technology that had begun to change, but our way of life was changing in huge ways.

• The Berlin Wall was built to keep East Berliners from traveling West
• Martin Luther King began his work to bring segregation to an end
• The Space Race took off like a rocket (pardon the pun) and gave us not only the first humans in space, but the first man on the moon.
• We watched in horror as our President was gunned down before our eyes on TV.
• James Bond aka 007 brought us into the world of spies via movies and a hunk of a hero. ;)
• The Beatles took over music and brought about the British Invasion.
• Woodstock created a gathering place for half a million people to enjoy life and music.
• The Kansas City Chiefs and the Greenbay Packers played what was to become the first SuperBowl.
• Sesame Street was born to entertain and teach our children via TV.

Music changed in big ways.  Rock & Roll, which has roots in the late 1940s and early 1950s, exploded in the 1960s.  From Chuck Berry to the Beach Boys to the Beatles, Rolling Stones and thousands of others, music was our voice.  We identified ourselves by the music we listened to.  If not for the early pioneers of rock & roll and those who followed, music would not be the voice of youth and conscience that it is today.  

As the decade of the '60s began to come to a close, PEACE was on the lips and minds of every American.  From sit-ins and protests against war and segregation to the music that said it all, the end of the '60s ushered in a new beginning for many.

Those of us who lived during those years have memories that will never be forgotten, whether it was the music, the movies, the TV shows, technology, sports or how we spent our after-school time.  If, like me, you have special things that will live forever in your hearts, feel free to share them.  I'm sure they'll spark memories for others.

While doing a little research on my favorite decade, I discovered The 60s Official Site, a (new for me) website that has it all.  But before taking a stroll through memories of the decade, watch Vibration of a Nation, a terrific video on the same site that's more than worth the 25 minutes to watch.

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~ Paul Simon