Covid isolation continued today. Here's what else happened:
1. Walmart contacted me after I made an order Saturday. They couldn't fulfill my requests for Dave's Killer Bread or Dave's bagels. They offered me replacement products from Franz and another bakery, but I declined. I wanted Dave's Killer Bread products. I then asked Christy and Carol if either of them were going grocery shopping today and, if yes, could they see if they could purchase us some Dave's Killer Bread products.
Christy went to Yoke's. Yoke's had both bread and bagels from Dave's Killer Bread! She picked them up for me. That made my day!
2. Dinner time rolled around and I asked Debbie if she'd like a hamburger on a Killer Dave plain bagel. She thought that sounded awesome. And it was! Those Killer Dave plain bagels are perfect for making just the kind of small to medium sized burger we both prefer and it tasted great.
3. I don't know exactly what year the Kellogg YMCA closed.
I welcome anyone commenting who can pinpoint the year.
What I do know is that after years of neglect and a few false starts to resurrect it, the building has now been declared beyond repair, beyond salvaging, and will, it looks like, one day be demolished.
Many of my friends and I have lamented this building's inevitable demise, but have been quick to put our grief aside and express our love for all the great times we had at the Y.
I last played basketball at the Y over Christmas break when I was a sophomore at NIC.
It was one of the first times I tried playing ball after getting hurt at the Zinc Plant in July of 1973.
That last time I played at the Y was very similar to the score of times I played there before that day.
I was relaxed. I felt confident. Being relaxed and confident, I was at my best. At the Y, I always felt like a real basketball player, unlike when I was a Kellogg Wildcat, playing for the high school.
As a Wildcat, I struggled mightily with confidence (often I would pretend to be confident, but that was an act). I played high school basketball nervously, never really free of anxiety, of feeling like a failure. I masked these feelings by doing stuff to make my teammates laugh -- and that was fun -- but I almost never was free of the anxiety and the mental pressure I felt.
BUT, at the Y, I felt none of this pressure, none of this anxiety, and what I remember and value the most about playing there was the looseness and freedom I felt. My friends and I loved the games we played at the Y, deeply valued one another's company, and had a blast playing wide open, pressure free basketball.
My Y friends and I are all in our 70s now. Over the years, we have told and retold stories again and again about the many many hours we spent in the Y and the people who worked and hung out there.
I love that we keep these stories and memories alive. Doing so takes the sting out of the Y's physical structure about to meet the wrecking ball.
Nothing, however, can wreck or destroy the spirit of the Kellogg YMCA and the shared love my friends and I have for the friendships we built there and the fun we had.
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