The Umpire Revelation & the Man that Walked on the Moon
I remember my first professional job, I was 14, and I went to Umpire School. When my first game came up I almost backed out I was going to have a lot of attention directed my way and it was a bit uncomfortable for a normally shy person. I had played little league out in left field a lot. Not many balls came out there; I pondered life a lot and would look at the Sun through a crack in my glove. But anyway I kept thinking about that $5.00 I was going to earn and pushed through my fears, it was a lot of responsibility two teams competing with each other and my split second judgments and various decisions influenced the outcome of the game in which so many people had a stake in.
Lucky for me my first game was a T-ball game at the Elementary School I went to so at least it was on my turf. Maya elementary in the Town of Mulberry, it was a bit like Mayberry on TV. It is not far from where the first man to walk on the moon lives, Lebanon Ohio, home of Cash's Big Bargain Barn. He came there once; much to my surprise, and gave my 3rd grade class a speech on our mission in life the year of the Apollo 13 mishap. You might have noticed he doesn't make many appearances, I always wondered if my father had something to do with it. I learned right before he died that he had worked with the astronauts I thought gee Dad how could you not tell me that all these years. But I never got to ask him, I assume it was Top Secret. I asked my mom about what Dad did for seven years, she paused and said “you know I have no idea he never talked about it” I guess she realized how odd that sounded.
But anyway some, a rare few, parents could say some really wicked things, that ego you know, I would just ignore them, at night when I went to sleep I could hear the chatter of the game in my mind. I would see how long I could hold my breath and time it, (this actually increases blood flow to the brain which expands it's delivery system). I didn't let it affect me or my judgment and I had the power and authority to throw them off the field if I wanted, I never used it just having it was enough. It was a young age to have power and authority over adults don’t you think? I remember one time in second grade, we actually had a judicial system, a judge and everything, some kid that I guess didn’t like me or maybe he just got confused, claimed I had been running down the Hall when I hadn’t been and I got in trouble. Two swats, but they didn’t hurt it was more psychological but I was very angry at being falsely convicted and punished but I didn’t cry at least I don’t think I did. One time this guy named David stood up during story telling time and he said over the weekend he was with his Dad in an Airplane and they were lighting sticks of dynamite and tossing them out. Everyone laughed, kind of like when I explained the current definition of time once in 1979 in front of a bunch of people. I thought he was making up this fantastic tail. But based on what I know now I suspect he was probably telling the truth it's not that far fetched as you might think, I found that out when I went to Florida. Oh if I wanted to go home I could actually cause my body temperature to increase to that magic number releasing me from bondage, at will, I never really thought it was unusual to do. I mostly had years of perfect attendance though.
The toughest game....
Continue reading "The Umpire Revelation & the Man that Walked on the Moon" »