I’ve found in my many discussions with dad, that he talked to himself A LOT! He was very content to play by himself and would talk to himself and make up friends and stories to fit in with whatever he was playing. When he was maybe 11 or 12, he would play a game called "King of the Fence". Across the street from their house was the elementary school called "Downing School". On the right side of the school yard, between the school yard and the house next to it was a fence. It was about 20’ high and he would play this game there. He’d take his wiffle bat and a rubber ball and hit it against the fence. He would do this all day long and if he hit the ball a certain place, it would be a home run or a double or whatever. And, he would announce – out loud! – the game he was playing. "Richie Ashburn is up to bat, hitting. 297 this year, No home runs, but 93 hits this year.." And, this is how he would spend a lot of his time. I’ve always asked him if he hadn’t become a minister, what would’ve been his dream job and he said he would have loved to be a baseball announcer. And, seeing that he started that when he was so young, I can see how great he would’ve been at that.
Uh, when you're short and 11 or 12 years old, the fence is 20 feet high, but actually it's about 8-10 feet high. 20 feet high would be as high as a two-story building, e.g., the school, and it wasn't even half as high as the school. Otherwise, I recall him doing that, while I was hitting tennis balls at the wall trying to improve my serve!
ReplyDeleteI should correct that. He said 12', then he changed it to 15', then said, "No, I think it was 20'". :-) But, he was short, so you're right. It probably looked like it was 20' tall!
ReplyDeleteHe's just so good at making things up. We need to keep him in check some times. But I think that's a Drexler/Sbaraglia thing. We all tend to exaggerate a bit.
ReplyDeleteHe could've been a writer. He's so good at making stories so entertaining. I can't write them the way he describes them. It's too hard to get it all down. But, it's so fun to hear them, because his voice inflections and mannerisms add so much.
ReplyDeleteMaybe when we're in IN at the end of the month, I'll actually record a couple of the stories and post them as videos (now that I know how to do that), so you can get to hear how he describes them. Especially the funny ones. They crack me up!
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