Memories from all over

Turning back the clock to the early 70’s, while we were still living in Pleasant Ridge, MI, there were several memories that stand out with my pops. He set up a Pitchback for me in the back yard for when he wasn’t around and I wanted to play ball. I used that thing all the time, but we spent a lot of time in the back yard throwing as well. There was a baseball field (sort of!) at the end of our street too and we’d go down there and hit and throw. Lots of ball playing growing up as you can tell.

One very memorable trip to the ball field at the end of the street ended in disaster. My dad put me on the handle bars as he rode the bike down the sidewalk. It wasn’t that far really, maybe a city block, though as a kid it really seemed further (as most places feel when you have little legs). Unfortunately I lost my balance or he hit something or maybe just bad luck struck and my foot found its way into the spokes of the bike! Yeah, sounds gross and awful and I’m sure it was, though I don’t remember much of the incident until I was in the bathtub at home. As no stitches were involved, I think it was mostly just skin torn off around my ankle. Poor pops. Just trying to do a good thing and it comes back to bite him. I can’t even imagine how bad I would feel if I did something similar (of course by accident) to my son. Ugh. Just awful.

But we did a bunch of other stuff around the house as well. Two shows we used to watch a lot were the old black and white version of Wild, Wild West and the weekly programming of Hockey Night in Canada. We’d sit on the floor, leaning up against the sofa with me sitting between his legs on his stomach and watch the episodes. The same position would be used for Hockey Night in Canada, which was one day a week and would involve usually Montreal or nearby Toronto. Inevitably, there would be hockey fight and then we’d start tussling and yelling "Hockey Fight in Hockey Night in Canada!!!" Great fun.

We made up games to keep us entertained as well. In Naperville, where we moved when I was 10, we would play Nerf Hockey in the living room. The living room was normally off-limits to the kids, so it was special to even go in there. Now, when you have 3 kids and a dog and not one, but two rooms (formal dining room) are off-limits, you don’t have many places to go to be alone and it can suddenly be cramped. It never really felt that way to me though I guess because we each had our bedroom and we spent a lot of time outside. Back to Nerf Hockey. It was just a game that we’d play on our knees where we would try to “slap” a small Nerf ball past the other guy with our hand. I’m sure those games ended up in Hockey Fight in Canada type events as well. Ha! 

The baseball card collection I currently possess and continue to build started early on with pops as well. He would trade samples of Schick blades and Listerine to the Topps salesmen and bring me home a box of baseball cards.  Those were awesome road trips for him to come home from needless to say! I kept them all in pretty good shape fortunately and still enjoy them. We worked on some sets through the years together (in the ‘70’s) by going to baseball card shows at the Hillside Holiday Inn as well as the national show periodically in Rosemont. One of his favorite stories is how I talked down Mad Dog someone or other, a local card dealer, to sell me a set of 1970 Topps for $60. It was quite the deal!!

Another great card collecting story happened much later while driving back to Altoona PA to see relatives (one of our two vacation sites growing up, the other being Beaver Island MI). We stopped in a nearby town where an auction was taking place that offered up a large selection of stuff including a big box of baseball cards. The guy running the auction let us buy the cards for $500 without going through a premium or the auction process. AND he let me look through the cards, which seemed only somewhat compelling until I came across I think 4 Reggie Jackson 1969 rookie cards and a bunch of others. That’s when I said we had to get it. While I was examining the cards, my dad was talking to the auctioneer. The guy said, “Wow, you look familiar. Are you from around here?” Turns out the guy went to school with my dad a few years behind him and he remembered my dad! Why? Because my dad could impersonate the school principal over the PA system and one day he dismissed the school mid morning. Caused quite the stir, but my dad didn’t get in trouble because the principal couldn’t prove he did it, even though he knew he did. Too funny.

I had another memory of us going to the Hillside Holiday Inn for a show one Saturday morning. On the way, while dad was driving his work Chevy Malibu (it was always a Chevy Malibu), dad asked me for a comb. Now I was in my young teens I’m guessing at this point. “I don’t have one.” I said. “How the hell can you not have a comb? Why aren’t you prepared?” he retorted. “Well, why don’t you have yours?” That earned me a knock across the chest, but what could he say? Can’t blame me for being unprepared if you’re not prepared yourself!! Ha! Really funny the stuff you remember when you stop and think.