So, What Do YOU Do?

Is it even possible to meet someone new without being asked that question?

The vast majority of people assume they are being asked about their career or current job. But I never respond that way because my work doesn’t even scratch the surface of defining me as a person or giving anyone an even remote idea of what I do and don’t do.

Do we become our jobs?  Does our job define our character, depth of personality, our level of importance, or worth among the masses?  Do some people have so little else going on in their lives that they totally immerse themselves in work?  How about the level of respect we are given by our fellow humans?  Should that be based on our job title?

Hopefully, the latter is not the case because even the way we view certain occupations may change drastically over the years whether it be doctors, lawyers, athletes, show business people, or politicians.

In St. Louis, the major important question is, what high school did you go to?  Please ignore the fact that the question ends in a preposition.  The question itself is as native to STL as the ice cream cone at our 1904 World’s Fair, our toasted ravioli on ‘The Hill,’ and our innate love affair for the Cardinals.  But I digress.

When people ask me what I do, my normal response does include writing.  However, I may respond over a 10-minute period of time with a veritable laundry list of things I do.  Plus, I feel the compulsion to also list a few ‘do nots.’

Prepare yourself for extremely long paragraph time!

My answer, in no particular order, is that I do 1)travel extensively, 2)argue politics with The Far Left and The Far Right, 3)wild dance, 4)hike, 5)write many normal and abnormal fiction and non-fiction pieces, 6)buy clothes at Goodwill, 7)act playful and joke around with people, 8)hug everybody, 9)play a lousy game of billiards because I have trouble forcing myself to aim, 10)pray, 11)think the natural lands and female form are God’s most beautiful creations, 12)listen to and watch FAR too much sports, 13)love the MUNY, Fox, outdoor concerts, and other live performances, 14)despise any willful act of crime and other areas of verbal and physical abuse of people and animals, 15)procrastinate, 16)back-strengthening exercises, 17)appreciate all I have, 18)spend time with my mom, 19)try to make newcomers feel welcome at social events, 20)love people and use things, 21)volunteer work, 22)have a love affair with national parks, mountains, and beaches, 23)kiss women, 24)despise political ‘sheep’ of  both major parties, 25)keep in constant contact with my Navy son David who lived with me his first 21 years.

Wait!  I just remembered that one of journalism’s rules is to try and vary paragraph lengths, and don’t make any too long.  I’m now taking a brief station break before heading into part two, like an instrumental break in karaoke, which I also enjoy when others are up singing alongside me.  Break…..Break…..Break…O.K.  Continuing right along, I do…

26)almost always try to please others, 27)maintain a near-perfect credit rating by always paying my bills on time and not being much into material things, 28)constantly show people my Utah keychain and tell them why it’s my favorite state, 29)love most types of music starting with Big Bands and show music, 30)despise the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke, 31)love watching history and travel shows, 32)hop too much in swing dancing when I’m supposed to be gliding, 33)observational astronomy, 34)write strange plays with hilarious song parodies, 35)strike up conversations with strangers, 36)tutor a handful of subjects, 37)get extra slap happy and lovable after just one glass of sweet wine, 38)travel photography, 39)despise music that’s excessively loud, 40)compliment people without expecting anything in return, 41)sing aloud and snack while I sit in my lawn chair at water’s edge of Creve Coeur Lake on very hot days, 42)believe we were all created to love and help one another, 43)struggle to maintain focus on just one task at hand, 44)love fairs and festivals, 45)enjoy things cultural and intellectual, 46)belong to Mensa,  47)normally have trouble saying ‘no’ to invitations, 48)love most ethnic foods, 49) despise the taste of all beers, and 50)constantly tell people that I came to Earth from Saturn in the mid-1950s.

(Long sigh)…..O.K.  You all know a great deal about me. Actually, maybe I’ll copy and paste this to an on-line dating site profile. What do you think of that?  It’s your turn.

So, what do YOU do? 

The next time someone asks you that question, make sure the proper amount of time is allotted for your complete response.

But I would be interested in your own response to that question right now.  You certainly don’t need to think of 50 things, but please click on the ‘comments’ tab at the end of this blog post, and answer away…if you dare!  To me, this is way more important in getting to know someone than just finding out about the job they do.  I’m certainly not merely defined by the work I do.  Are you?

Happy Birthday, Motion Picture Princess!

Today is the birthday of a true American icon!  One of her works was embroiled in a major network television controversy a full 45 years ago!   She also served her country well for more than two decades.  But I’m wishing a very happy birthday to a lady best remembered in years prior to that as the most adorable and most popular child performer of all time!   Yes!  Happy 85^th birthday to Shirley Temple!     

Born in Santa Monica, CA in 1928, who could forget Shirley’s singing, dancing, and acting performances in dozens of 1930s and 1940s motion pictures?

Probably her two most famous songs are “On the Good Ship Lollipop” from the 1934 motion picture, Bright Eyes, and “Animal Crackers in My Soup” from the 1935 film, Curly Top.  Those movie titles were named for Temple’s own appearance.  All that was missing was one named for her delectable dimples!

But scores of NBC television viewers were not so keen on seeing those dimples on November 17, 1968.  That is when that network cut away from an old American Football League game (expansion into the National Football League was in 1970) in which the New York Jets had just booted a field goal to take a 32-29 lead over the host Oakland Raiders.

There was just 1 minute and 15 seconds left in the game that had exceeded a normal game’s length by about 30 minutes due to an abnormal amount of penalties and timeouts.  Fans missed Oakland’s two long plays leading to a touchdown, and the Jets fumbling the ensuing kickoff that was scooped up by the Raiders for another score just nine seconds later in a 43-32 win!

But the station, following pre-set rules, had already switched to the made-for-TV children’s version of “Heidi,” featuring Shirley Temple and set in the Alps.  

Due to the thousands of calls from outraged fans near the conclusion and after that game, the network changed its policies to hold off on other regular programming until games were completed.

All that happened due to the airing of “Heidi.”  Thus, that forever would be known as “The Heidi Bowl!”

The second most noteworthy accomplishment in Shirley’s career, then known as Shirley Temple Black, was her political life.  She was appointed as a United Nations representative in 1969.  Ensuing posts included Deputy Chairman of the USSR-USA Joint Commission, of the U.S. Delegation to the Conference on the Human Environment, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.  That was all through 1972.

Finally, Shirley was US ambassador to the Republic of Ghana from 1974-76, our Chief of Protocol from 1976-77, and ambassador to Czechoslovakia and later the Czech and Slovak Republics from 1989-1992.   

Shirley Temple had of course won many achievements as a politician and an actress.  That includes the National Board of Review Career Achievement Award.  In 1998, she was honored at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Just seven years later, Shirley won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild.

Once again, thanks for all the memories, princess of the motion picture screen!

Wait!  There’s one more thing!  How about the non-alcoholic drink named after Shirley Temple?  Made from ginger ale, grenadine, and topped with a maraschino cherry, it is reputed to have been first mixed in the late 1930s by a bartender at Chasen’s, a famous Beverly Hills establishment.  Nowadays, ginger ale is often substituted by lemon-lime soda.    

So, let’s all drink a non-intoxicating birthday toast to Shirley Temple!

America’s Best Bargain?

I’m the type of person who would be hard-pressed to try and sell a product in which I did not truly believe.   So, I just asked myself this question:  Which item that is not normally sold at a resale shop or discount store (skipping Goodwill Stores where I buy most of my clothes and all my record albums) or garage sale, offers the very best bargain at its price?

 

That is so darn easy!   Without a doubt, the answer is those 3-ounce packages of Ramen Noodle Soup.  Maruchan is my favorite brand, and for 25 cents or less, the contents of the package can be used as soup or simply as a side dish. 

I currently pay 19 cents each for them, but they are in so much demand that you can often get a Souper 6-Pack in any one of a few different flavors for about $1.35!  At that rate, you can probably get a 36-pack for about $8!   OK.  So, most Americans are not as mathematically functional as you and me!

You might be thinking, so what???  All you get is less than three ounces of curly noodles.  But NO!  The real bargain to me is that little rectangular pouch that contains the wildly flavorful dust! 

I admit that I had to do an Internet search to learn how many different dust flavors there are.  The answer is an even 10.  In alphabetical order, they are beef, chicken, chicken mushroom, chili, lime chili, Oriental, pork, roast beef, roast chicken, and shrimp.

Since I am a big-time chicken lover, that’s the flavor I buy most frequently.  Would you believe that the soup base features at least 19 different ingredients?  Some of the more creative ones are Disodium Inosinate and Disodium Guanylate.  Of course, they are both salt products, but the latter one sounds like a mixture of the flying bat (the mammal that is, and not the baseball one that slips out of a batter’s hand) and coffee bi-products.  Have any of you ever had a Guano latte?  Do you prefer it served hot, over shaved ice, or on the rocks? 

Reading further down the list to the final ingredients, we have powdered cooked chicken and cabbage extract.  With all the 17 other ingredients preceding them, it’s amazing that this magic dust actually DOES taste like chicken!  Heck!  Kentucky Fried Chicken’s original secret recipe only has 11 herbs and spices!

Speaking of sodium, I like the helpful hints posted on the back of the bag:  “You may reduce the sodium level by simply using less of the seasoning packet.”   That’s great advice for those who pay more per item by purchasing in quantity.  But why would anyone want to use less than the full packet and cheat themselves out of that full chicken flavor?

It also mentions that RAMEN NOODLES ARE VERSATILE!  “Ramen Noodles can be easily used as a main course or as an enticing side dish.  To do this, simply drain off the broth, then…”

But that’s not all that entices or even enchants or bewitches me to always have several packets on hand for my preference as a side dish.  Not only do they contain 0 grams of Trans Fat—important for all of us 100% health-conscious Americans—but they are also made in Irvine, California, right here in the good old U.S. of A.  

So, be like Jeff.  Buy American!  Buy Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup!

Thank you for your undivided attention, and I’ll be playing here…err…I mean eating them…all week…based on my current financial situation!

Darling, Save the Last...Err...I Mean...A Dance For Me!

There she sat alone within a few strides of the dance floor, some 25 feet from me, at a table made for six.  But for my purposes, it would be just right for the two of us!  It wasn’t long before it would be the last dance of the evening.  I would claim that with her after enjoying a few minutes of engaging conversation.

How angelic she looked, but at the same time, I was just as overcome with her incredibly voluptuous appearance.  As I strode in her direction, a few of the lyrics to the song, “So Rare,” infiltrated my brain.

“So rare; you’re like the fragrance of blossoms fair;

Sweet as a breath of air; fresh with the morning dew.

So rare; you’re like the sparkle of old champagne;

Orchids in Santa Fe couldn’t compare to you.

 

You are perfection; you’re my idea

Of angels singin’ the ‘Ave Maria;’

Or you’re an angel; I’d breathe and live you

With every beat of the heart that I give you…”

As I got within 10 feet of her, our eyes met in that rare, longing gaze, then…

…another man took her hand and led her away, and out the door!

“You win some; you lose some,” I nonchalantly told myself.  After all, women love a man who dances, and is there anyone more willing than me?  So, I reset my focus on another lady, and began the cycle anew! 

But seriously, folks…dancing is simply an activity I love regardless of any romantic vibes!

My adulation for dancing has gone through many different stages.  It started with square dancing from 1975-1988.  It continued with mostly freestyle moves to ‘Mad’ Maynard and Jackie McCoy’s KADI Original Oldies Show at Club Mali Kai in the Henry VIII Hotel late in that same time period.  Next was a brief stint of contra dancing some five years ago at The Monday Club in Webster Groves, then spread out everywhere with a variety of friends and acquaintances through Meetup groups, and I added swing dancing to the mix with my first lessons at Moolah in January 2012.

During my many extremely shy and introverted periods up to the middle of 2010, I often used dancing as an excuse for not having to actually talk to anyone.  But now, I’m wild and free both on and off the dance floor!

Yes, dancing is a wonderful means of expression, whether it’s freestyle, slow, swing, salsa, contra, cha cha, tango, Cajun, or whatever other steps.  It’s all about feeling the music, dancing to the beat, and potentially forming some type of connection with one’s partner.

 

I returned to the Concord Farmer’s Club in early 2013.  It was my first appearance there since I dated fellow dancing enthusiast Stalina from late 2002 to late 2004.  I had forgotten what the place looked like except for the bar area.  People told me that the inside was fully revamped. 

Either way, I enjoyed taking an East Coast swing lesson with someone who has developed into a great friend, and a bit later, I taught her the River Waltz.  It was wonderful dancing with several women I had previously met over the past year or so, and quite a few new ones.  I also loved the mixer about halfway into the night!

 

I grabbed my partner’s friend who had never taken any swing lessons before.  She appeared to be the perfect guinea pig, so I not only combined East Coast, West Coast, and regular slow dancing to the mix, but also serenaded her in the process with smiling faces and laughter throughout.

Dancing means SOOO much to me!  It’s not only a great way to meet people, but it’s a totally active pursuit, the music is normally terrific, and I can add a little karaoke that I normally just reserve for shower solos.  You know…like some of those Al Green songs, “Let’s Stay Together,” “I’m Still in Love With You,”  “Look What You Done For Me,” and “You Ought to Be With Me.”  It’s great to love & appreciate oneself, but it’s normally better to sing to someone else than just to myself.

My dancing venues have greatly expanded, too!  It could be Sunday evening at Kirkwood Station Brewing Company, Sunday night at the Dorsett Inn for The Oldies Show, Tuesday night at Moolah Shrine (my own Parkway North Junior High a loooong time ago) and/or Sports Café, Wednesday night at Sports Café or JP’s Corner, Thursday night at Frontenac Grill, Friday night to Concord or any of a couple dozen other places on the weekend in St. Louis or St. Charles County!

Darn!  I have to get this blog finished!  After all, I DO have a dancing date tonight!  

To all the ladies out there, please save the last…err…I mean…A dance for me!

Meetup is the Best Solution for the Socially Inept Amongst Us

Have you ever talked yourself out of attending an event due to shyness or self-conscious tendencies?  Do you assume that your social inadequacies would make you feel somewhat akin to a square peg in a round hole?  Perhaps you have a phobia for large social settings or don’t feel you are a good enough small talker.

For those reasons and more, I have missed many a fun event in my life. 

Long ago, I luckily discovered a great means of dealing with those personality disorders.  Outside of actual medication or psychiatric help, the best solution for the socially inept amongst us is Meetup.

Just go to www.meetup.com, and a world of possibilities will immediately open up to you.  As it states on the site itself, “Meetup is the world’s largest network of local groups.”

I know that the term ‘something for everyone’ is often greatly overused and exaggerated in our society.  But that’s precisely what Meetup offers.

Meetup activities run the gamut from small to medium to large group functions; the totally sedate to extremely active; and completely mindless to extraordinarily brain-challenging.  But the best thing of all is that there is generally no membership fee or cost to join Meetup other than what you pay for admissions or tickets to events, and money for gasoline and your own food.  But many people carpool to some events.

The groups I currently belong to and frequent the most are Fun Peeps, Living Life to the Fullest, Singles Again, St. Louis Volunteer Group, St. Charles County Baby Boomer, and Let’s Hike.

I will forever remember my first Meetup event just as I have my first woman.

It was an overwhelmingly hot and humid Saturday or Sunday in early summer 2006.  The event was a group picnic in St. Louis’ Forest Park through The Activity Group, to which I still belong.

Always early, I was the first of some 35 people to arrive amongst those who signed up in advance.  Not knowing a single member, I wandered around a bit, asking various strangers if they were there for a Meetup event.  You obviously won’t experience this when meeting at a restaurant, coffee shop, or any other much smaller venue than a city park!

I finally connected with a woman name Anne, who I still see several times a year through Meetup, including a hike tomorrow morning at Fort Bellefontaine.  Together, we found the correct picnic spot.  Each person brought a covered dish to complement a big-time BBQ!  I met a dozen or so people in that first hour of eating and socializing.

From there, many of us either carpooled or walked the half mile or so in the heat index of about 100 degrees, to the Forest Park Boathouse.  We rented pedal boats with up to four to a boat for an hour.  We pedaled around all the beautiful and cool fountains well below a hill that houses The St. Louis Art Museum.  I’ve lived in St. Louis my entire life, but never did that before!

After hiking back to the picnic site with another new friend, the socializing continued with more snacking, drinking, and desserts.  There were even a few picnic style activities, but it was far too hot to partake in too much of that.

But after that one single event, I have been totally hooked on Meetup as an active member of seven or eight groups.  Those groups alone have helped me form great acquaintances and friendships with several hundred people!  They provide some 20-30 or so event choices every single month!  I know some people who belong to 50 or more of the several hundred area Meetup groups.  You do the math!!!

There are Meetup groups for every age group starting at 21, and for just about every type of interest available to man or woman!  Another benefit is that there are groups to attend in mornings, afternoons, evenings, and late nights.

Meetups include several dining groups like West County Dining Group and Dine Out on a Dime, very active groups like St. Louis Adventure Group and Single Christian Adventure Group, ones for couples, dancers, those into a variety of sports, playing cards and board games, movie going, political, spiritual, live plays, Happy Hours that often draw more than 100 people, karaoke, business and networking, etc.  It’s also easy for anyone to start their own Meetup group right from the site!

There are also several parameters on the site to easily find most of the choices.  Just plug in your zip code, distance willing to travel, and also key words for interests.

We attend a few very small gatherings all the way up to huge ones like the Happy Hours, recent Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day parades, and the Mega Meetup Party held this past Saturday, March 30^th.  It was dubbed “Take Me Out to the Ballroom” in honor of the start of the Cardinals’ baseball season.  Most of the more than 500 of us who signed up were clad in a wide array of baseball garb to party and dance to the band Crossfire after reserving The Casa Loma Ballroom to ourselves!

So, you say you’re a bored and lonely person with little to do and with very few friends?   You say you’re not very outgoing or sociable?  Sorry!  Those excuses just won’t fly in Meetup!  Most of us are extremely friendly and welcoming to all newcomers!  So, head to www.meetup.com and start your new adventures!  If I could do it, anyone can!

Confluence Trash Bash Rehash

Nothing could have been more apropos for yesterday’s Fifth Annual Confluence Trash Bash than the 100% recycled bags that were available to some 200 volunteers after the event.  The sides of the Missouri American Water items were decorated with a few hundred colorful plastic bottles.   Simply stated on the very bottom of the bag’s front was “I Used To Be a Plastic Bottle.”

The event was held in or near four different sites in the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area.  I chose Creve Coeur Park because I not only grew up nearby, but also because it’s a place I frequent several dozen times every single year. 

My mom used to come to Creve Coeur Park in the 1950s by streetcar.  It’s a historical fact that is documented in a shelter next to the playground in the upper part of Creve Coeur Park. That’s reached by going west on Dorsett Road and turning right into the park prior to reaching Marine Avenue.  It can also be reached by walking up some 300 steps from the parking lot to your right while coming down the hill on Marine from Dorsett Road.

I’m thrilled that I signed up for Station Two, which was the vast area down by Mallard Lake behind The Lakehouse Grill.  After turning in my signed liability waiver at Sailboat Cove, I was equipped with gardening gloves and several bags by the event organizers.  I headed straight behind the eating site and to the right.

What a total eye-opening experience it was on the appalling side!  In the first 20 minutes alone, I found enough plastic bottles, cans, glass containers, Styrofoam cups and parts of broken cooler pieces, plastics, pens, and some five or six different types of balls to fill six trash bags about a foot wide and 2 ½ feet high.  As one of some two dozen or so volunteers working that area, I filled another five or six bags over the next couple hours! 

So many shocking stories of finds were shared with many others during the cleanup process.  They included a large, round laundry basket, a huge bag that we were told was used to hold sand for sandbagging, and a very tall, ornate light bulb.  It was also announced at the end that some 1,065 bags of trash were collected along with hundreds of tires from a nearby dump site.

I have visited many areas of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers plus tributaries and creeks that flowed from those waterways.   One could often find a smattering of trash that might have been deposited there by the current from hundreds of miles away.  But that’s not the case at freestanding Creve Coeur Lake and its small water offshoots.  

Why would people not bring plastic grocery bags or the like to collect their trash then load them back into their vehicles or deposit them into metal drums close to the long, walking trail?

That was part of my response to new friend Caitlin Zera, a Webster University photo journalism/media major.  I spent a good amount of time collecting trash with her and her father. 

Zera was also taking a good variety of photos along the trash-lined shores before interviewing me as a former journalism student during our barbecue lunch to help complete her school project.

It was different for me being on the receiving end of interview questions, but the answers came easy.  I told her that although I was surprised that so many people would just leave their containers and other items, it pretty much fits into other areas of our throwaway society.  Just consider all the neglect in other areas of our society and how poorly some people treat others and their own pets.

Our environment, including the water sheds are too precious for us to spoil with trash, runoff from pesticides, and the like.  Constant education is one of the solutions, and I will be sure to continue to spread the word on the subject and volunteer again next year!

The other major meeting sites for this year’s event were St. Ferdinand Park in Florissant, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge area off Riverview Drive in Bellefontaine Neighbors and the Choteau Township area of Granite City, Illinois.

Trailnet, Great Rivers Greenway, Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, St. Louis Audubon Society, and the Missouri Department of Conservation were also among several sponsors of the event. 

Free Missouri Stream Team t-shirts were also distributed to volunteers.  That’s pretty much the intent of the project—to help keep Missouri water areas FREE of trash by pushing a greater STREAM of consciousness into the minds of our residents in the realm of clean water.

First Loves Last a Lifetime

Ah, spring!  It’s the perfect time for a young man to fall in love!

For me, it’s was more than just a mere spring fling.  I was a mere 8 ½ years old, but the spring of 1964 was just right for me to fall head over heels.

Getting an early start must be hereditary.  Love of baseball hit my dad in the early 1930s.  Since his name was Hank Greenberg, it was natural for him to become a huge fan.  His namesake, the original “Hammerin’ Hank” and future Hall of Famer, started shining for the Detroit Tigers in 1933.

Having Greenberg as a childhood idol helped my dad maintain his baseball interest, and our love for the game had similar births.

My dad was just seven when the 1930 baseball season began.  By the time it ended, he was hooked for life.  Managed by Charles “Gabby” Street, the hometown St. Louis Cardinals edged the Chicago Cubs by just two games for the National League pennant.

Leading the way were “Sunny Jim” Bottomley, Frankie “The Fordham Flash” Frisch, and Charles “Chick” Hafey.  Every member of the Redbirds’ starting eight lineup hit over .300, making things easy for pitchers “Wild Bill” Hallahan, Jesse “Pop” Haines, Charles “Flint” Rhem, and Burleigh “Old Stubblebeard” Grimes.  Talk about nicknames!

The Cardinals lost the World Series that year to the Philadelphia Athletics, but repeated in the National League in 1931, and knocked off Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons, and the heavily-favored A’s.

The 1934 World Champion Cardinals, known as “The Gashouse Gang,” with the likes of Frisch, Joe “Ducky” Medwick, James “Ripper” Collins, James “Tex” Carleton, and especially Jerome Hanna “Dizzy” Dean and  Paul “Daffy” Dean, made it easy to be a baseball fan in St. Louis.

My mom, Delores, born in 1930, is also a long-time baseball fanatic.  She was a fervent rooter of the overachieving St. Louis Browns when they captured their only American League pennant in 1944 before losing four games to two to a Cardinals’ team that featured a young Stan Musial. It was our town’s only “Trolley Car” series.   The Browns always took a backseat to the Cardinals among St. Louis baseball fans, and moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season to become the Orioles.  Needless to say, Mom has been a Cardinals fan ever since, watching every single game!

Now, it was my turn!  I was not even seven years old when I attended the first game I truly remember. It was on Tuesday, June 12, 1962 at the OLD Busch Stadium I, formerly known as Sportsman’s Park, at Grand & Dodier.  I was there with my parents and my two elder sisters, Sherry and Debby. 

We started our descent from those wooden general admission seats shortly after the Phillies came to the plate in the eighth inning with a 2-1 lead.  Before we exited, the Cardinals’ 25-year-old second baseman Julian Javier had drawn a walk.  Suddenly, the crowd noise grew to a thundering ovation as rookie first baseman Fred Whitfield, who came up from the Cardinals’ minor leagues for the first time just 16 days previously, connected on a pitch that I still remember bouncing onto the street in front of us. That’s actually the only thing I remember about the game. 

I was actually able to track down the box score because I had recalled more than 50 years later that Whitfield homered late in the game as the Cardinals won.  He hit only eight all season, his only year with the Cardinals before being traded to Cleveland the following season.  This was the only game in which he homered late in a winning effort.      

In order to give Whitfield a chance at first, it was also was one of the few games Musial still played some left field instead of first base.  Ironically, Whitfield died January 31, 2013, just 12 days after Musial had passed away.

                 

The following season, the Cardinals, in Musial’s final season, made a late-season pennant run, winning 19 of 20 in September.  Then, St. Louis was swept three in a three-game home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the pennant by six games.

Sherry, Debby, and I grew up bleeding true red Cardinal blood.  Baseball was king in our house.  We went to some 15-20 games a year and never tired of hearing the colorful bellowing of St. Louis native Harry Caray and the then low-key, dry wit of Jack Buck on KMOX Radio.  Both are members of the broadcast wing of the National Baseball Hall of fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

What went hand-in-hand with the game itself?  Baseball cards, of course!  That’s where one, big, inanimate object helped enrich my childhood love.  Outside our tiny house in the mid-county suburb of Olivette was a giant, red rustic wooden fence.

After living at that house for about four years, that red fence on one side had suddenly gained tremendous importance as a shortcut to fantasyland!  Sherry would take some of her allowance money, and together we would climb the five ladder-like wooden slats to the top, then climb down to the rarely-traveled side street that awaited us on the other side below.  Just about ¼-mile away was baseball card heaven—Sherman Brothers Delicatessen!

In season, baseball card time was one of the most anticipated times of the week!  Back then, it was just a nickel for a five-card pack of Topps cards that was accompanied by a flat, pink stick of bubble gum, measuring about one inch by two inches.  We would often get the special of six packs for a quarter!

How exciting it was taking turns opening these glorious packs, one at a time, as the other person waited anxiously to try and catch a glimpse of what was inside. 

“Wow!  We had a Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson, or Cardinal great Ken Boyer!”  A few seconds later, we may have uttered, “Oh, no!  Not another Choo Choo Coleman!”

We never thought about any monetary value of baseball cards.  But we did want the best players and our favorite Cardinals.  After all, we often played war with the cards.  Aces were guys like Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Sandy Koufax.

Considering how much money old cards can currently bring, it’s unfortunate that most of the cards of the top players received the most creases from handling.  Well, at least I still have some 7,000 baseball cards with loads of sentimental value!   My dad’s mother threw out his shoe boxes filled with cards from the 1930s and 1940s while he was in France late in World War II.

Those trading cards certainly helped fuel my love for baseball, and that fence provided a great means to that end.  But the fence meant a whole lot more.  It was the entire fair ball outfield wall for neighborhood whiffleball in our own “Field of Dreams.”  A large drum lid was home plate, an old tire was third base, a broken chair that lay flat was second base, and I don’t recall what we used for first.

Our own “Green Monster” stood down the left-field line.  Unlike the one at Boston’s Fenway Park, this green fence didn’t earn its nickname because of its height.  It was only about five feet high.  What we thought lay behind it was what terrified us!

We lived at the very end of the street and there were no houses behind us.  Instead, the green fence separated us from an enormous field with weeds and very tall grass that never seemed to get cut.  We imagined there were loads of snakes and rats lurking there. 

We wouldn’t dare venture into that field to search for the hundreds of whiffleballs we fouled off.  Luckily, our parents didn’t care how many balls they had to buy.  They would often join us, and we were all doing what we loved.  But we did make a rule that if you hit the ball over that green fence, it was an automatic out.  So, we righthanded hitters learned right away about hitting the ball to the opposite field.  There was a lot more open space down the rightfield line, anyway!

The magic of those baseball cards and our own backyard playing sessions were intensified by what was happening on National League playing fields in 1964.

The Cardinals, who two weeks earlier had acquired a young Lou Brock in a trade with the Chicago Cubs for starting pitcher Ernie Broglio and a couple lesser talents, began July in seventh place, 9 ½ games out of first.  St. Louis was still 7 ½ out in September.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia had been in first place since mid July, building a seemingly insurmountable lead as the season headed into that final full month.  Then something strange happened to the Phillies.  After being used to winning more than 70 per cent of its games for two months straight, Philadelphia began September playing .500 ball.  Later in the month, the Phils lost 10 games in a row!

With the season in its final week, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco were all within three games of one another!  The Cardinals then completed a three-game sweep of visiting Philadelphia.

My family went to the middle game of that series, for which I still have the scorecard.  It was Ray Sadecki pitching for the Cardinals against Dennis Bennett for the Phillies.  Cardinal first baseman Bill White homered near the scoreboard clock for an insurance run in a 4-2 victory.                                                     

I still remember sitting near the top row of the grandstand and still have many ticket stubs from that era--$1 for those general admission seats and 50 cents for bleacher seats.  We all stood up and made noise by banging the wooden seats up and down!

I’ll also always remember scoreboard watching as then first place Cincinnati hosted Pittsburgh. Because of all the transistor radios around us, we were well aware of the situation. 

All of a sudden, Caray shouted, “Pittsburgh has won!  Pittsburgh won its ballgame, 2-0!  It’s over!  Pittsburgh has just beat the Reds, 2-0!  Holy cow!  Within 15 seconds of the Cardinals win, (Bill) Mazeroski threw out (Chico) Ruiz, and the Pirates beat the Reds, 2-0! The National League race is in a tie!  And the Phillies in third place stay only a game-and-a-half out!”

The following night, another eventual Hall of Fame broadcaster, long-time Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver belted an early home run to help the Cardinals to a series sweep and the National League lead!

However, the Cardinals then dropped the first two games of that final homestand against a New York Mets team that finished the season dead last with a 53-109 record.  Meanwhile, the Phillies broke out of that long losing streak just in time to knock off Cincinnati on Friday before their rare Saturday open date.

Entering the final day of the regular season, Sunday, October 4, 1964, it was the Cardinals 92-69, the Reds 92-69, the Phillies 91-70, and the Giants barely eliminated at 90-71.  The Reds could have won the pennant that day, the Cardinals could have won it, or the season could have ended in a three-way tie!

That last scenario looked even more plausible after Rookie-of-the-Year Richie Allen’s second home run of the game gave Philadelphia a 9-0 lead over Cincinnati, and Bobby Klaus’ two-run double gave the Mets a 3-2 fifth inning lead in St. Louis.  But Boyer, Dick Groat, and Dal Maxvill drove in runs in the bottom of the fifth.

The Cards led 11-5 in the ninth inning when Caray stole a line from Giants’ announcer Russ Hodges.

“A high pop foul, McCarver’s there, the Cardinals win the pennant!  The Cardinals win the pennant!  The Cardinals win the pennant!”  

All the kids from our neighborhood gathered to rejoice with an impromptu celebration on our front lawn as the Cardinals won their first pennant since 1946 before later topping the Yankees in a seven-game World Series.

Just seven months later, my family moved.  I missed that red fence, but still love my baseball cards, the sport itself, and of course, the Cardinals!