Mama Bear

I received a call from John last night while he was on the bus returning from one of his baseball games, to let us know he was on his way home. In the background, there was a bunch of yelling and horseplay, a lot of that "male bonding" type noise.


A midst the noise, somebody called out, "Hey John! Who ya talking to?"

"It's my mom."

"Your mom? Your mom? Hey, hey John's mom, John had two strikeouts tonight!!"

Then in a chorus they all began shouting: "John! John! John! John! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!"

I stood there frozen and furious. How could they all be so mean?

It was too loud to hear, so John said he would talk to me when he got home. I waited with tears in my eyes, not knowing what I could say about the taunts. It made my heart hurt for him, since I know how hard he has been working at baseball practice.

A few minutes later, he called back to say he was going out to eat with the team. I asked him if he just wanted to come home instead. He sounded puzzled.

"Well, after all the teasing the guys were doing about your two strikeouts, I am surprised you want to go."

He paused, then started laughing. "Mom, I struck out two batters! They weren't teasing, they were happy for me!!"

Turns out, he was a relief pitcher, and pitched the last inning!

And they won.

Boy, did I feel stupid!

A concession stand story

Maybe it made a difference, maybe it didn't. But I want to think that it did.

Thursday night, when I was working in the concession stand for the varsity game, a young man who was a member of the football team came to the window.

He grinned at me and said, "Hey! You have any free hot dogs that you can spare?"

"Nice try, but no." I replied. "I have some good two dollar ones, though!"

"Aw, darn." He smiled and turned away from the window.

It wasn't but a few minutes, he was back. "Are you sure you don't have a free hot dog you can spare?"

I began to wonder if he was a friendly con man, or was he really that hungry? Then, as I smiled and shook my head in the negative, one of his friends came up and slapped him on the back.

"Hey, man, why aren't you playing?"

"Man, I didn't pass that vocab test, and Coach said I was ineligible to play today."

They talked together for a minute, then started walking away. I don't know what possessed me, but right then I called the young football player back to the window.

"Hey. Did I hear you say you are ineligible to play?"

He looked down for a second. "Yeah, I am."

I spoke to him with partially mock severity, and handed him a hot dog. "OK, listen to me. I'm going to buy you this hot dog, but you have to promise me that next week you will come back and tell me that you have brought your grades back up to passing."

He laughed, and said, "Hey, thanks! I sure will!"

I figured I was quite the sucker, but I didn't dwell on it too much. It is not common for any of the kids to ask for food more than once, so maybe he was really hungry. Or whatever. I put it out of my mind.

Well, guess what! Today I was cleaning the concession after the 9th grade game, and my football player came to the door.

He smiled a bit sheepishly, then said to me, "I came by to tell you that I am eligible to play now."

You could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather. The day I gave him the hot dog, that was exactly what I wanted to happen, but I did not expect to ever see him again. He not only brought his grade back up, but made the effort to let me know about it! The biggest reward for me was the big smile that flashed on his face when I stood up and applauded him.

Did one hot dog make a difference? Maybe not, but I guess I will never know for sure. The Pollyanna in me wants to think that it did.

Fun without me

My kids' summer vacation began ten days before mine. Although I still have two more days to work, they decided to take a road trip without me. A dozen teenagers traveled a couple of hours to Mears, Oklahoma to eat at the world's famous burger restaurant and Shelby talked Arthur into driving one of the groups. So not fair! They could have waited until I could go too. But, nOooo, they just had to go right then! There is no way I can take time off at the very end of the school year.

I guess it was a good thing for them that I didn't. They neglected to mention that the trip included a drive to the top of Mt. Scott so they all could go rock climbing. I don't do mountains!!! Art is much more relaxed about things like that.

I'm not going to complain. I think Arthur is a very good sport for making the trip.



Mears looks like a real dive on the outside, but evidently that is their gimmick. My gang brought back a burger and home fries for me, and the food is exceptionally good!



Then for the part I'm glad I missed:
















This distant climber too far away to identify is none other than John.



I'm glad they all had fun without me. Next week I can join them in an excursion but you can be sure, it won't be on any mountains!

My Redbud Runners

We have had a busy weekend. For one thing, Shelby and John ran their first official race. Arthur's son Gregory and his fiance Elizabeth visited this weekend, and they are avid runners, so they all decided to run in the Redbud Classic. From left toright: Alex, Shelby, John, Greg and Elizabeth. Greg is the twin brother of Matthew who, if you remember this post, is due to run the Boston Marathon in a couple of weeks.

We won't know the race results for a few days, but it doesn't really matter. It was just so great that they did it! :) Next year, perhaps Arthur and I will run. (LOL, yeah, right!)