2023
I just want to sit on the front stoop at 220 South Lombard and take a deep breath. Maybe reach for my mitt and a rubber league baseball. Put a wad of big league chew in my mouth and throw the bottom of the ninth against the concrete steps.
My dad can come out and yell at me for throwing that god damn ball against the house again.
He never understood….When I pitched that ball against those seven steps it always came back to the pitching mound out on the sidewalk. I don’t know why the hell it pissed him off so much.
I just want to sit on that stoop one more time and enjoy a root beer float and watch the first lightning bugs appear in the front yard. Listen to my dad talk about when he was a kid. How much of a treat it was to have ice cream on the front porch.
I just want to sit on that front stoop and drink my first legal Old Style without sneaking behind the garage….. having my dad call Old Style Panther Piss as he hands me another one from the icebox. I’d do anything if I could have one more cold one on the front steps at 220 South Lombard.
I wonder if the man who owns our house now would call the police if I stopped over and threw a ball against his front stoop. I can tell him the tree in his front yard was planted during the spring of 1984 and offer him one of my Old Style’s before Oak Park’s finest show up.
Whenever I was around that front stoop I never had any problems. I didn’t have any unpaid bills. I didn’t have an ex wife driving me insane. I didn’t have to worry about anything.
If I fell down my dad would pick me up, throw me a clean towel and turn the water on in the shower.
We all need to pay an occasional visit to our parents front stoop. Every once in awhile I'll get into Betty the Green Blazer and do a drive by. Usually I stop by my dad's old White Hen and buy a lottery ticket or go by the Oak Park bakery and get a coffee cake.
The tree we planted is taller than the house. The new owners planted bushes and flower beds all over the place. Any remnants of a baseball diamond or the gridiron made famous at the TurkeyBowl of 1981 are long gone. The third base line has a hydrangea bush on it. The end zone is a rose garden.
I’m tired… I just want to walk up the front stoop and up the stairs. Climb into my bed and take a nap until breakfast is ready.
Not going to happen….
…I often try to remember the last time I threw the ball against the front stoop. I didn’t know at the time that this is it, this is the last inning of my illustrious front stoop baseball career. I’m thirteen, fourteen years old and I’m never going to throw a ball against the front steps ever again.
If I do anything in 2023, I’m going to find a wall somewhere and pitch a couple innings for the 1977 White Sox.
Do they still make hard rubber baseballs?
I’ll probably end up on Tiktok, “oLd fAt dAd dOIng HiS yOUth!”
“Hey kid put down the fucking phone! I need a right fielder!”
Anyway, it’s Tuesday morning and it looks so good. I’m already in a daydream.
In a daydream on the front stoop at 220 South Lombard.
The times we are living in have placed more weight upon our shoulders. Stress has been growing heavier the last few years.
If the stress is caused by your own doing…. Correct it.
If the stress is caused by something that you can’t control…. Two tears in the bucket, Mother F*** it!
Climb the mountains in your life and turn a challenge into an accomplishment…
Easier said than done?
We are sliding into the end of January…. It’s January, it’s supposed to be cold and snowy!
This too shall pass….
…just like the problems that you are carrying right now!
Don Shepley always said, “the things we worry about
Today we will laugh about in six weeks!”
Using hindsight the oldman was spot on.
Maybe not six weeks, maybe not six months…. But when you put the mountain down and jump over it…. Well … it sure feels better!
I’d love to see Cincinnati versus San Francisco! Forty years ago these two teams met in Superbowl XVI.
Forty years ago? Seems like yesterday and all the mountains I was carrying in 1982 are now part of my foundation.
2021
A wintry January Sunday!!! The days are getting longer... I hope your football team wins today!
It’s going to be a nice day to prep for a week of challenge!
Sunday is the day to work on building your FOUNDATION with FAITH and FAMILY and FRIENDS!
2020
Short weeks are always tough! Enjoy your winter tonight and tomorrow! Your beer will be getting warm under the sun before you know it!
2019
Happy Thursday....
2018
Humpday!
