The Day Will Come
My dear Mother might have been one of the wisest and smartest women who ever walked this earth. I am sure that many of you feel the same way about your mother also. My Mom, “Nonnie” to the Grandkids, would sign birthday cards with: “A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.” It had to be wise since it came from Nonnie.
As kids, if she ever caught one of us snickering or making fun of someone’s looks, she would get philosophical and mutter: “The day will come when she will be the most beautiful lady in her senior class.” Of course, we would guffaw and later eat a big plate of crow. The gawky, bespeckled 12-year-old should have been named Butterfly due to her metamorphosis. Again, Mother would read the “Ugly Duckling” to us to make a point.
As young parents, we all stayed busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. Practices, toys everywhere, homework, carpools and the Battle of the Hormones. Many looked forward to a neat, quiet and clean house. Be careful what you wished for.
The day will come when you glance in the rearview mirror where you once saw 2 young Little Leaguers, only to now see empty seats. For some strange reason, you keep that old-tattered baseball in the backseat, just as a reminder.
The day will come when you wash their uniform for the last time. Each stain told a different story. You can recall the winning slide into home plate. The blood stain on the football jersey reminds you of the night that his nose got busted on his first play of the game. The team Mom’s shared cleaning secrets with each other.
They have now washed and dried their last uniform, after all these years. What would they give for a basket full of stinky socks, jocks and torn T-shirts to clean for tomorrow’s practice?
Baby Boomers were part of the original “Rebellious” generation. We had it all figured out as teenagers during the 1960’s. Nobody could tell us the answers, especially our parents. As a matter of fact, we had a problem for every solution.
When it came to child-raising, so many of us thought that our parent’s philosophy and parental skills, came over on the Mayflower. What was their comeback? “The day will come when you have children of your own. You will find out in a hurry that Dr. Spock’s parenting book should be kept in the outhouse for better use.”
What did we do when that day finally came? We started out trying to negotiate and use “time-out” as a discipline tool. Our parenting techniques gradually evolved or revolved back to the tried-and-true methods of days gone by. As they say, we slowly became our parents.
Our kid’s lives gradually started to resemble our own young days. Even though many left the church or organized religion earlier, it became imperative that they get involved with the youth program at church. The day for organized sports finally came about. T-ball, Little League, church basketball, pee-wee football, junior high and finally varsity football. We didn’t miss a one.
In athletics, coaches constantly preach about doing the little things to achieve excellence. The message has been the same since the first whistle was blown: “There will be a day when cutting corners, will come back to haunt you.” Players start out touching the line on drills like they are supposed to do. Next, they come up 2” short, then 6”, then a foot, and finally they come up a yard short. It carries over to other aspects of the game including discipline, conditioning and film study. Little things build up to become big things. The day finally comes when team morale heads in the wrong direction. It’s hard to reverse it.
As we age, our bodies resemble older automobiles. Parts wear out. Others must be replaced. Occasionally, the entire motor needs to be rebuilt. Whether we like it or not, there will be a day when we get the dreadful news about “something suspicious.” It might be “there appears to be an irregularity that we discovered during the blood tests.” Our heads start to spin, especially after attending the funeral of a teammate.
Since the health scare day has finally gotten here, we suddenly become a better listener. We actually hear and try to remember every little detail that the doctor said. “Did he say 4 centimeters or 4 millimeters?” How big is a centimeter anyway? The doctor said that they think that they found it early. Is stage 4 and level 4 the same?
What do we do next? We go into “internet overload.” We Google every article, white paper and news report on the condition that the doctor just told us about, less than 2 hours ago. It is human nature to search and search for something positive. Unfortunately, we start thinking about our mortality and family.
We finally vow: “the day has come for me to change my eating habit. If I can just overcome this, I will exercise more and lose some weight.” Unfortunately, we lie to ourselves after recovering by going back to our old ways.
Very few people our age still have one of our parents around. It is virtually impossible to find Boomers with both parents still alive. As youngsters, we dreaded the day that we would lose one of our parents. We knew that the day would finally come. That didn’t make it any easier. We all remember where we were on that day.
Most of us are now the patriarchs and matriarchs of our families. How did we become the family “elders?” I still can’t comprehend it when I see a story on the news about the “elderly.” I know that they are referring to Mother, Daddy, Aunt Maude, Uncle Claude, Coach Manley, Elvis, Doc and Jimmy. It dawns on me: “All of those people are gone.”
The news report talks about those who are qualifying for Medicare. That was me, 10 years ago.
The day has finally come for all my friends to get this important message LOUD and CLEAR:
College football starts this month. You have had exactly 32 Saturdays to have a wedding or a birthday party. Don’t invite me to anything on Saturdays during the fall that has nothing to do with football. Let this serve as my response to your RSVP: I regretfully decline.
For weddings, send me a video. I will watch it after the National Championship game in January. There is a commandment somewhere in Exodus: “Thou shalt not have Saturday birthday parties during football season.”
To my family and friends: “If the day comes for the Good Lord to call me Home during the fall of the year, I will come back and haunt all of you if you have my service on a Saturday.”
It would be embarrassing to be the only one there.