1. It's cold outside. Today a wind kicked up. Inside the house, it's quiet, warm, and peaceful. Charly is at ease. It's tempting to indulge in the comfort of my solitude on days like today and just drink hot things and not do much. Finally, this afternoon, I ventured out. I leapt in the Sube and crawled west on Cameron, navigating the gathering throng awaiting today's Kellogg High School Homecoming Parade. I took bags of mostly seltzer water cans to the recycling station down the gulch from the high school, and, as I left, a tiny squadron of JROTC members serving as honor guards, were marching with an USA flag in front of a fire engine loaded with students at the front of the gathering Homecoming parade and I zoomed out of the recycle area, a safe distance ahead of the parade, avoided West Cameron Avenue -- the parade route -- and took I-90 to the Division Street exit and returned to East Cameron and took the old highway out to the dump where I deposited about a dozen cardboard boxes into the cardboard recycling bin.
When I returned to Kellogg, the JROTC honor guard had reached the corner of Hill and Cameron and was leading the parade south on Hill Street. I turned north on Hill, right on Riverside, and right on Division and made my way to Railroad Avenue, hoping to arrive at the corner of Railroad and Hill ahead of the parade because I wanted a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and a 16 oz latte at The Bean.
I succeeded.
I enjoyed my order, yakked a bit with Ginger, and listened as the parade made its way into Teeters Field. Before long, the bellowing of each high school class filled The Bean as the classes competed with each other at the Homecoming Pep Rally, one by one, to see which class could roar cheers in support of the Kellogg Wildcats the loudest.
During my high school years, I don't remember ever having an outdoor pep rally outdoors at Teeters Field at the end of a parade. I remember the evening bonfire and I've written before about when a bunch of us drove coughing and gagging through a cloud of tear gas outside the Inland Lounge and Rio Club uptown after one of these bonfires, but we never had a rally like these students had today and I was happy for the students. I think they were having a lot of fun.
2. Back home, I settled in for the early innings of the Astros/Rays game. As I will explain soon, I had another engagement at 6:00, but I got to see the Astros explode for four runs in the bottom of the first and, unlike Tuesday, George Springer, Michael Brantley, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman looked animated, fired up, and the Astros definitely had some of their trademark pop back in their bats. The top performer, though, for the Astros was pitcher Gerrit Cole. I watched him mow down the Rays for about four innings. His pitches were nasty. I later learned he pitched eight innings, struck out 10 Rays, and dominated Tampa Bay.
3. I missed much of the game because Carol and Paul hosted a boisterous wine/dessert party so that my sisters, Paul, and I could get together with Dave Vergobbi, Dave's wife Ann Riordan, and their daughter Claire.
Dave and Ann are in Kellogg from Salt Lake City to carry on with the work Dave and his siblings are sharing to deal with their father's home and belongings in the wake of Jim's death in July.
Our conversations ricocheted all over the place tonight, but, if one thread tied them all together, it was reliving the past having grown up in Kellogg -- and, to a degree, for the alums in the room, reliving some days at the University of Idaho.
For me, things got a little intense (no problem) when conversation veered toward Dave having worked for Dad as a mechanic's helper in the lower Zinc Plant. Dave and I added to each other's stories and descriptions of what a nasty place the Zinc Plant was to work and Ann asked me about the accident I had there in 1973 and I told my story. This led, as I remember, to us Kellogg kids talking about the Sunshine Mine Fire and our memories of that horrible week and Paul shared a harrowing experience he had while working in the bowels of the Lucky Friday mine.
Somehow, we managed to lighten things up by also talking about Krazy Days in uptown Kellogg and Frontier Days in Smelterville and about stuff like when Dave and some of his friends went to the KWAL station building in Osburn dressed like Kiss, so we had a lot to laugh about; not all of our conversation centered around grim mining history and near death experiences.
I loved our time together. I enjoyed getting better acquainted with Christy and Carol's Tri Delt(a) sister Ann and really enjoyed listening to Claire talk about her work with the non-profit organization called Garden City Harvest in Missoula. And, well, to be honest, those days working in the Zinc Plant really invigorate me when I get to listen to others who worked there and when I tell some of my stories. Last night, I thought how fun it would be to suddenly have other Zinc Plant alums get together -- Cas, Jim Etherton, Mike Woodruff, John Hopper, Sparky Jasberg, Dale Fattu, Merle Buhl, Dennis Carlson, and countless others -- and tell more stories and discuss the wonders and horrors of working in that plant. I do know this: for Dave and me, as was evident this evening, those days (and nights) working in the Zinc Plant were not only memorable, but deeply formative.
While we were visiting, I checked the score of the Rays/Astros game from time to time, but the game I was missing that I also cared a lot about was Game 5 of the WNBA Championship Final. Tonight's game determined the 2019 WNBA champion and, once again, because of living those three years in Maryland, I felt an almost hometown affinity with the Washington Mystics.
But even more than that, I was pulling for the Mystics because I am a fan of Washington's great Elena Delle Donne. It's tempting for me to tell her whole story here, but suffice it to say that Delle Donne has made her family and her severely disabled older sister the primary focus of her life. To stay close to home, she played college basketball at the Univ. of Delaware (after leaving the powerhouse U Conn program). As a professional, she asked to be traded from the Chicago Fire to the Mystics to be closer to her family in Wilmington. She's battled Lyme Disease, a broken nose, knee injuries, among other ailments, and played this final series against the Connecticut Sun with a mask on her face and three herniated disks in her back. She is, in every aspect of the game of basketball, a superb player -- twice named the WNBA MVP and I love watching her play.
When I returned home, I jumped right online and read recaps of the Mystics' victory over the Sun and read about what Elena Delle Donne contributed to the win and what she had to say afterward. Her focus was on her older sister, Lizzie, who always has been and was again last night, Delle Donne's inspiration. I haven't looked at video from the game, but I'll see if I can find some.
Would I rather have been at the dessert party tonight? Yes. Did I sometimes wish I could be two places at once, at our party and in the Vizio room? I did. I loved the party and when I returned home and poured myself a mug of brandy, rum, and hot water, I also loved learning how Elena Delle Donne performed in helping the Washington Mystics to their first ever WNBA championship.
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