Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Three Beautiful Things 07/13/15: Mom's Car Ready to Roll, Walmart Happy Dance, 1979 MLB All-Star Game

1. First thing, I drove Mom's car to the old Rena Theater.  Now, it's the site of Dave Smith's Auto Service center. Mom's Malibu was overdue for an oil change and not only did the car's oil get changed, but the car cleaners at Dave Smith's did such a fine job of cleaning the exterior and interior of Mom's car that I wasn't sure I wanted to get back into it, fearing I might mess it up with a stray blade of dead grass or have some dust fall off my shoes.

2. Since breaking her arm in March, Mom has not been inside a grocery store, let alone the Smelterville Walmart.  Well, today Mom and I changed that.  I drove Mom up to the Smelterville Walmart entrance and she got out of the car and flung her cane high in the air, spun around in an ice-skater-like triple axel happy dance, and caught her cane before it hit the ground. I'd never seen anything like it. My jaw dropped, and, mere mortal that I am, I just parked the car and joined Mom and walked all over the store so she could pick up a wide variety of groceries, household goods, and gifts for Zoe's birthday.

3. Much to my surprise and delight, I stumbled across a replay of the 1979 Major League All-Star game, a game I attended in Seattle at the Kingdome.  It was fun to see the two terrific throws Dave Parker made from right field to nail Jim Rice at third and then Brian Downing at home, thanks, in large part, to Gary Carter's masterful blocking of the plate. I enjoyed seeing Lee Mazilli's game tying home run in the eighth and, once again, felt the weirdness of having the NL's winning run score on four straight base on balls served up my Jim Kern and Ron Guidry.  As I watched this game, I marveled at the number of players present whom I liked a lot thirty-six years ago.  For me, great names like Yaz, Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Bobby Grich, Rick Burleson, and many more.  My memories of that game had grown dim, so it was fun to have them brought to life again.

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