Memories and Wishes...

1st Inning.  For Christmas, I wish that I had one more Christmas morning as a child in the early to mid 1980s. That feeling opening presents under the tree and finding Transformers and G.I.Joes....or the Star Wars toys...Lite-Brite...He-Man and the Masters of the Universe...or that stack of comic books...all of that while knowing my mom bought it as a single parent working as a waitress at a little cafe in suburbia.






2nd Inning.  For Christmas, I wish I had one more summer playing baseball with all those guys from the Grandview Baseball Association. Win or lose... standing in line at the concession stand after my Uncle Alton paid for the team to get a candy bar and a soda was always a good way to keep the spirits up or raise them after that loss...Suicide please!

3rd Inning. For Christmas, I wish for one more day to spend at the Grandview Book Gallery.  The smell of old books...spending my entire paycheck from working at my mom's cafe...the glass case where they laid out the new comics on top and kept the expensive ones inside...George sitting behind the desk...rifling through the old comics looking for the ones I didn't have but needed to complete my collection...oh, and trying to catch a peek at the old Playboys which were strategically placed next to the old comics.




4th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish for one more night to spend driving around in my 1967 Mustang with my friends, Billy Dick, David Peterman, and Chris Zeller.  This time we will drive with the headlights on...stop by Taco Bell...cruise around Longview Lake...maybe hit Noland Road or Paul's Drive-In.  There is nothing like being with your buddies and driving around in your first car.

5th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish for one more meal made by my Granny Brewer.  To taste her biscuits and gravy...her white corn bread...that sweet corn she grew in her garden...her chicken and dumplings...fried fruit pies..fried trout...fresh tomatoes also grown in the garden...her banana pudding or blueberry graham cracker dessert or her pineapple orange juice upside down cake... there was nothing she (and her cast iron skillets) couldn't make to eat.






6th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish for one more squirrel hunt with my Papa Brewer.  Getting to target shoot with my Papa's old Winchester single-shot .22 rifle (it was his father's gun before he had it)...walking through the woods with him passing on his wisdom...hearing his dog 'tree a squirrel'...Skinning those suckers and having Granny fry them up for a meal.





7th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish I had said 'Yes' to a couple of guys back in 1999 when they asked me to be President (again) of the Tau Kappa Epsilon, Beta Psi Chapter at Arkansas State University.  The time I spent at A-State will be some of the most precious years of my life.  If only it had not gone by so damn soon.  Being called upon as a leader of other men was special to me and during those months, and after surrounding myself with other great young men, our chapter had a sort of renaissance.  We won awards...recruited more good men...reestablished our presence on campus...and had a good time along the way.  Then came the end of my presidency and two of the most respected members of that era pulled me aside and asked me to run again. That chokes me up every time I think about it and what else I could have accomplished leading those guys...



8th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish I had one more night to spend with all of my cousins going to the movies after Thanksgiving and Christmas at our Grandpa & Grandma Arnold's house.  It was an annual tradition once I received my driver's license.  We would all (David, Michelle, Merle, Shelley, Karissa, Denny, and numerous friends) go to Ward Parkway theaters for a movie and fun.  One of the first things we would say to each other once we got to Grandpa and Grandma's was "What are we going to see?".  Being around cousins you don't get to see often always turns into a sentimental feeling.

9th Inning.  For Christmas, I wish for something that doesn't involve me but someone else. It would be that Buck O'Neil would have made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  When he received the news that day 10 years ago, I was glued to the tv just like so many others here in the Kansas City area.  If you wanted to see a grown man cry, you should have been in my living room that day.  I already admired him greatly prior to that announcement, but watching him handle it with such grace had me admiring him even more.  Buck proved you can get further through life with love rather than hate. I've tried my best to adhere to that model, to the Buck Standard.  I hope to meet him once again in the afterlife and shake his hand and listen to an old baseball story.