A little over a year ago I made the decision to do most of my daytime work from home, a mental, emotional and mainly financial decision. Gas prices! It has turned out to be a very good decision as I feel like I can stay ahead of the game now with all the different responsibilities that I carry and still get to all the games that I choose to cover. That means that I have an office of sorts set up in my Man Cave that with apologies to Superman, is kind of like my Fortress of Solitude. Maybe the coolest thing about the “cave” is that everywhere I look I can see something that stirs up a memory of days gone by, days I wish I could rewind and have over again.
To begin with, the desk that I work at is the same desk that was in my room as a teenager on Meadow Lane Drive in Ripley. Though it is a little small for all my work stuff now, it always brings back memories of sitting here doing my homework with Q102 on the radio, ready to pounce to my cassette recorder to push “record” when that favorite song came on. Many of you have been there. I’m sure the drawers of the desk then were full of kid stuff, but now they are adult drawers that need a serious cleaning.
Right behind me on a shelf is a keepsake that I’m willing to bet none of you have. On one of our many trips to Reds spring training camp when I was young, my sister had a broken arm and Johnny Bench signed her cast. Well of course, the cast was disposed of but I still have the piece of it with the Bench signature, as clear as it was then.
Right below the Bench signature are shelves filled with 50+ dvd’s, all labeled with dates and photos. What are they? They are the record of my kids’ childhoods because everywhere I went I took a video camera (before my days of hauling the Nikon) so someday they will be able to take these off my hands and sit back and watch themselves grow up again. Yes, I have two copies of each, one for Kelsey and one for Jordan. The inordinate amount of time that I put into making and transferring all those videos will be well worth it long after I’m gone. But oh the memories!
I look to my left and see a very large five-shelf bookcase, that doesn’t house one single book. What could you find there? a whole bunch of 800-count boxes. Now if you are a baseball card collector you know exactly what I’m talking about. Actually there are baseball cards all over the cave and what memories they bring. Getting that phone call from the lady at the Ripley Locker Plant that the newest cards were in and then hopping on the Schwinn and riding the four blocks to be the first to buy. I didn’t even tell my best friends about it until I had bought my fill, which usually was a couple of boxes since cards were just a bit cheaper those days. How many of you can remember the chant that went along with the opening of every new pack, “Got him, need him”? Good times!
I don’t know how many of you know what McFarlane Sports figures were but the cave is well-stocked with them. The top shelf that I can see from my desk has a pretty good crew- Clemente, Aaron, Mays and Ruth. The chase for McFarlane figures is a treasured memory of my son and I stopping at every Toys “R” Us to check for new figures. You’ll see baseball, basketball, football and hockey figures all over the cave, every one a memory of the chase.
Scan again to the left and you will see two old storage shelves that we salvaged from the Maysville Rue 21 when it closed. They made the perfect display for bobbleheads and now they are the resting place for 25 assorted Cincinnati Reds bobbleheads, most of them stadium giveaways that I got from an inside source (Hint, now she’s in the Big Apple), but all of them bring a memory of a player in days gone by. Between the two bobblehead displays is my Broadway shelf with my framed playbills from “Hamilton” and “Wicked” plus the Hamilton Funko Pop collection. I still have some more of them to get but every Broadway memory always takes me back to junior high when I was Charlie Brown. Yep, I was a good man! Or to the Christmas when my daughter gave me a 1 dollar bill in a card. I’ll let you figure that one out.
On a shelf on the wall is one of my most prized possessions, one I could sell for a hefty sum, but it ain’t going nowhere. A Christmas gift from my parents many years ago, it is kind of hard to describe but it’s a set of mounted figures of the Big Red Machine “Great Eight” plus Sparky. Every time I look at it, I recall how many times my parents took me to Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium or to Al Lopez Field in Tampa. I can only say how fortunate I was to have “sports” parents, but that part of the collection tends to make me emotional.
Need another memory? How about the 17 autographed baseballs that sit on the TV stand and other shelves? Let me tell you about the ball signed by one Stan Musial. At a spring training game in Florida, my Dad pointed out this guy and said that I really should go ask him to sign my baseball. Turns out that guy was Musial. There’s the ball signed by former Red Gerry Arrigo, who actually came to our house when he was here for a hunting trip with my uncle. Signed right there in our front yard.
Well now, I’ve only made it through about half of the room I am sitting in so it looks like I may need to have a Part 2 next week. Until then, I invite you to look around your house and do one simple thing- soak up the memories!