A couple of things happened in the last 24 hours which have caused me to be in a very nostalgic mood ... scary I know!! Last night I saw a ghost from my past ... well not really a ghost ... more like a the original creeper. While I was still peacefully sleeping this morning (I ripped all the smoke detectors off my ceiling to stop the beeping), Egyptians were out casting their first democratic vote. Today is our Seniors last day here at Live Oaks and tonight is their Senior Ceremony. All of these events got me to reminiscing .... so watch out!!!!
The Don
Growing up, my circle of friends was convinced a certain unnamed (mainly to limit my own personal liability) individual was Chester the child molester. How we came to our conclusion is still to this day unknown ... at least I don't think any of my friends had any 'first hand' experience with the Don. By the time we were in high school, it had become a full-time obsession for one of my friends and he drew our entire circle into his Quixotic quest to out the Don. The Don wasn't a Catholic priest, but he did seem to officiate or referee every sport we played in as youngsters and show up randomly at sporting events where kids were in abundance. The evidence was flimsy I agree, but it was enough for us to build our case. In the pre-Internet days (note to younger readers: personal, home computers were exceptionally rare throughout my high school years. Al Gore hadn't yet invented the Internet when I graduated from high school. No one had cell phones .. only beepers!! Huh? How did we survive? Because we were 234890 times more inventive than you will ever be. We played outside too ... can you imagine? It's not just Larry Bird's Pacers who are S O F T nowadays!), Tom Quixote (name altered to protect the mostly innocent) was somehow able to track down where the Don lived, where he worked, his daily schedule and, I have heard, what he like to eat for breakfast. Once we were of driving age the quest to capture the Don in the act so to speak became one of our most frequent leisure activities. We would slowly drive by his house with a camera at the ready to catch our own version of Boo Radley in the act. The sight of kids' bikes on his lawn would cause our camera's shutter go off in Uzi-like bursts. Imagining the swirl of a curtain or the creaking of a door as an excuse to bolt faster than Usain, we would speed away certain we were one step closer to busting the Don. It became the lowest insult we could hurl at each other ... to call another one of the Don's 'boys'. Alas, I graduated high school and my concerns about the Don receded into the spaces of memory rarely visited. But when I saw a ghost of life past striding toward my son's baseball diamond last night in a light blue umpire's shirt stretched over a chest protector, my mind went blank except for an antique checklist. He had the same beady eyes scanning for children, the thinning salt and pepper comb-over greasily plastered to his forehead, his face streaked with the sweat of a man afraid to be exposed .... and then I chuckled. A quick post to Facebook had my old friends LOL'ing, but it was a nervous LOL because maybe we hadn't finished our quest. He's still out there my friends ... who's gonna ride with me to the Don's house???
Egypt
I'm still amazed at the thought of some Egyptian casting a vote to democratically elect a leader for the first time in their history. How many hours of my youth did I spend learning about the greatness of Egypt in antiquity (two antique references today ... i'm on a roll ... time to go solo!)?? And for all the greatness of Egypt and the Suez Canal, they were a people under authoritarian rule. George W. Bush, parodied as Alfred E. Neuman for most of his term, believed people in the Middle East would embrace democracy before most Americans believed it possible. W may not have been able to express his vision accurately ... heck he couldn't pronounce half of the countries were democracy is taking root today ... but he knew people are meant to decide their political conditions. Egyptians will line up for hours today to vote and I wonder how long the lines will be here in November for our Presidential election. I remember how excited I was to vote for the first time in 1990 and how I still proudly wear a one cent "I Voted Today" sticker on my chest every opportunity I get. How many of you vote? How many of you complain about our government or taxes? If you didn't raise your hand for the first answer, then you shouldn't have raised your hand for the second. Democracy only works if you hold those elected accountable by your vote. When only 50% of registered voters (which isn't 100% of the population) show up to vote, our representatives have no reason to make decisions in the best interest of all Americans and can tailor their votes and political ideology to the people who will show up to support them at the polls. Get out and vote in November!!! It's a privilege were have neglected for too long. Here endeth the lesson.
The Reds
Four wins in a row?? Against quality teams?? Say it ain't so!! Mat Latos was dealing last night and showed glimpses (although not of his wife .. bummer) of why the Reds brass thought he could be a top of the rotation pitcher. He threw 116 pitches in seven full innings of work, not necessarily efficient but not especially wasteful, and held the Braves to two runs. The Reds bats were mostly quiet (only 6 hits) and took advantage of three funkblasts to score all four runs. That's two games in a row where all the Reds' runs have been scored via the longball. Chicks might dig long things, but offenses sputter when they can't string together three or four hits in a row. The Reds have only two hitters over .275 (Votto and Hanigan) which worries everyone by His Dustiness. The Cuban Missile showed no ill effects from his journey to Shawshank (the prison in the movie is located not to far from C-Bus), so I'm guessing the Sisters didn't bother him. The Missile followed Ricky Vaughn's advice for a closer - give him the heater - and blew some of Atlanta's best hitters away like a Cuban firing squad. Except for the bullet off Matt Diaz's bat that Miggy Cairo caught with his chest, the Missile was never threatened in picking up his second save of the season. Bronson Arroyo takes his mullet to the mound tonight against Tommy Hanson. Hanson has pitched well returning from shoulder surgery but does have a wild streak. The Reds aren't known as a patient team at the dish, but the key tonight could be running up the pitch count and getting into Atlanta's bullpen. The Cardinals are still hanging onto first place by a half game having beat Easy-E (Edison Volquez) and the Padres last night. Plus the Cards say Berkman is only going to be out six to eight weeks ... H E double hockeysticks!! Oh well ... Dusty's last stand rolls on!
High School Graduation
We graduate our Seniors tonight and I would like to wish them well. The night I graduated from Middletown High School was accompanied by thunderous booms (there were thunderstorms around us, including one just over the Great Miami River in Madison Township) as I walked across the stage in Barnitz Stadium. I've never felt more invincible then that moment 22 years ago as I left the stadium in my purple graduation gown surrounded by family and friends. The world really was mine for a night and I believed every Seussian word of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" It hasn't been the easiest ride, nor the route I predicted, but I wouldn't change a minute of my life to this point. As I stare at 40 and the old age of my youth, I am reminded of the
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