Being a Thunderbolt

An autumn reverie…thinking of my football days long ago...I replay those days again when the leaves start to fall.  And I think how few who haven’t played the game won’t really understand why I still yearn for those days so long ago. For one thing that many who have not played an organized sports don't realize - the easy part is the game, being “in training” is much harder...and then I back in a basement pumping iron…

The last game ended the next week our new season begun for me and my fellow lineman.  We met three times a week to lift weights with our line coach who we Mr. Riley who everyone called Ole Rile even though he wasn’t old.  Matter of fact he was in better shape than all of us because he was a lifelong bodybuilder who had his physic memorialized by several massive trophies.  He was tough and was the only one in gym shorts at practice on frigid days during the end of each season.  He worked us hard all winte in his home “gym” which had literally a thousand pounds of weights and bars and benches.  So for me the football didn’t end just the games were over until the next year.  This conditioning wasn’t required to be on the Thunderbolts - but six of “starters” did it religiously three times a week until late summer when the team started to meet for workouts.

I can still feel the heat when we returned to classes and started our daily practices for 3 and half hours the first afternoon back to school.  I was in the best shape I would be in my life.  I was soaked and exhausted after every session on our grassless field near the old stadium.  On Saturdays we had full contact  scrimmages that were torturous in the heat of “Indian Summer” as my grandmother called every warm day after Labor Day.    The long practices continued for three weeks every day but Sundays until our first game.  Coach was very strict about us going to church.  Many times during the season he would remind us - “We need all the help we can get so go to church!”  The Saturday before our opener we battled for hours while he had an assistant coach keep an eye out for the press so they would not see our newest plays.  Football was a big deal in our little town.  

Each morning on  tired legs I would drag myself to the bus stop and limp from class to class and ask myself, “Is this worth it?”  After the last bell rang and school was done I got angry seeing most of the guys at Millville High could go drink Cherry Cokes at the Hub Lunchette across from the school or go home and watch Bandstand as I trudged to the locker room.  However, our locker room was the most fun of our day joking and pranking - this was the home of the camaraderie of being a member of a team.  The aches, pains and bruises that were added to each day were forgotten for a few moments until one of the coaches would yell, “Come on ladies get your butts out on the field...we haven’t got all day but we’ve got a lot of night left”   The blessed Friday before our first game finally came and that meant a light practice with new pads.  The opponent is long gone from  my memory but wearing my brand new # 52 gameshirt in the halls to class are well remembered. It was a proud moment as many wished us - Go Bolts.  Class ended a period early on those Fridays and everyone, teacher and students, cheered with our cheerleaders in our big auditorium.  The place rocked as our small but mighty (loud) marching band played us onto the stage.  Coach introduced each varsity player which was akin to getting an academy award and a feeling I would rarely repeat for years to come.  

That night Bub, our quarterback, Rob, our best receiver and I, a lowly lineman went to the movies.  We were all nervous and thought that Jerry Lewis antics would calm the butterflies raging in our stomachs – it didn’t.  We had missed the beginning of the movie because of practice, ate popcorn and candy as our dinner and then mutually decided to stay to see the beginning of the film - and that became a big mistake.  Our curfew was 9:30 and we were  “ in training” and had pledged to abide by the rules.  We had to be home and in bed early on the night before a game.  The clock ticked closer to our deadline and I started to sweat.  The questions we all were thinking, could we stay a few more minutes before getting into trouble or even benched the next day?   We all knew we were taking a chance as the coaches would phone our homes to check if we were in bed.  At 9:28 I nervously looked around and Yikes, our head coach was sitting right behind us.  I whispered the pending doom to Bub and he to Rob - Rob started to cry.  We “slunk” down in the seats and didn’t know what else to do…and then Coach got up and walked to the refreshment stand.   We were up and out a side exit in less than two seconds to Bub’s car (he was the only one old enough to get a license the month before this escape).  I just made it in the door when linemen coach Riley called to verify I was keeping the training rules and with a wink my mom said I was in bed asleep already.  She saved me again.  Without a word I crept to bed.  I didn’t sleep a wink that night or any night before a game - but it was the attempt at resting that counted.

We won the next day and I never went to a Friday movie for the rest of the season.  Years later coach Barbose informed me at a class reunion that he knew it was us three stooges sitting in front of him. “I let you sweat for a few minutes then left so you could escape -  it was more important for the team that you did not get benched for missing curfew for a few minutes...and I knew that you would never do it again."  

Playing football was full of lessons that we would not appreciate until later. Lessons that went far beyond playing a game. We were kids learning that rules, hard work, sacrifice (and being on time) would be important to practice throughout our lives – that’s what being a Thunderbolt was all about and for everyone who has ever played the game.

ViRTUALLY - Part 2

After telling my granddaughter about my way of playing games with the TV screen, I dredged up a bunch of “Firsts” that I experienced in TV land when I was a boy and television was new…

After my weekly Saturday morning adventure with Winky Dink I had my Official Drawing Kit that I got for Christmas  at the ready and I exchanged a waxy crayon for a pencil. It was time for my “art lesson”.  I quickly changed channels to watch You Are An Artist with Jon Gnagy and wondered what we would learn to draw this week.  I loved this show more than Howdy Doody or Cartoon Corner!

(Note:  Jon Gnagy is most remembered for being America's original television art instructor, hosting You Are an Artist, which began in 1947 on the NBC network.  It was the longest running show of all “How To’s” in TV history.  As of 1986, over fifteen million of Gnagy's drawing kits had been sold.)

My art kit had some neat stuff - a charcoal pencil, several lead pencils, a big tablet of genuine artist “sketch” paper, a kneaded eraser (which I thought was a “needed” eraser until my first year as a college art major)  and a small gizmo that Mr. Gnagy, called a sketching stomp was used to blend and shade our lines and shapes and “give them form”.  This simple tool made a big difference in the results of my drawings.  I was always excited to see what subject we would draw this week.  The show started. “Hi there artists...let’s draw a sailboat and a lighthouse…it’s called a seascape”  Wow, I thought this was going to be much more fun than last week when we drew a pumpkin and three gourds which I learned was called a still life.  Our teacher had a goatee and looked exactly like all the images I had seen of a real artist.  (I couldn’t wait to grow one of these tailor-made facial decorations -  but I would have to wait ten years - another story I haven’t written yet).  

Mr. Gnagy started every show with a review of his basic technique - “Everything is made up of shapes - a cube, a sphere, a triangle or a cylinder. And begin your drawing with the most important shape.”  This week it was the sailboat’s sail which was a triangle! I followed along step by simple step and at the end of the show I had a rough duplicate of his well praticed drawing - I thought it was very creative rather than a copy.  He closed his lesson with some shots of famous paintings with boats by the great masters and pointed out the shapes they used to achieve their lasting masterpieces. As another episode came to an end he urged us to “keep drawing because you are an artist and art takes practice for us all”.

And as my memory faded I ended it story thinking of a comment from a renowned  American landscape artist that I produced my own TV show with - Pat Whit, The Marsh Painter.  “Dare to be lousy,” she has urged her students of all ages for 70 years.  Indeed, great advice for us all.

VIRTUALLY - Part 1

I was fascinated watching my 4 ½ year old granddaughter Violet playing a game on her personal iPad.  She noticed me trying to see her screen and asked, “Grandpa do you have an iPad?”  I replied with a chuckle, “I wish, but I am not as lucky as you are who have parents who give you very nice presents.”  She thought about this for a moment and then asked, “Did you have games like this when you were growing up?”  And said, “Sort of,” and then she went back to her game.  And I began to think about Winky Dink and You, and me!  My first “interactive” media fun.

Every Saturday morning in 1953 I had a routine.  Breakfast of peanut butter, jelly and milk and then waiting for the new kid’s show to start a program on our 10” Admiral TV to come on.  I was always early so sometimes I would just look at the picture of an Indian Chief in a feather headdress accompanied by an annoying humming sound.  As I waited I wondered  what trouble Winky, the little imp with a squeaky voice, would get into this week and how I would help him out of his weekly jams.  I used to just watch the story but Mom bought me a Winky Dink Magic Kit and I was part of the show.  It had a Magic Window, which sheet of plastic stuff that stuck to the television screen and special crayons (that could be purchased for 50 cents when you used had used them all up). This let me draw pictures on the TV screen without getting into trouble.  

Finally the show started as the music played a theme song I liked to sing and Mr. Barry, Wink’s friend, welcomed us all back for another adventure.  

Wink was a cartoon "kid" noted for his plaid pants and his dog woofer. Winky would arrive on a scene and start a story but needed my help to complete. Last week I drew a bridge to get across cross a river; he always got into some kind of trouble and needed my help to get out of it!  This week before he was looking for Woofer who was lost and I was asked to connect some dots which made a bridge so his puppy could come back home…

And then I was back in the present. I interrupted Violet’s intense concentration on her screen.  “Violet I remember now...want to hear about a great adventure game I played?  When I was young…and TV’s were very new... 

PARKING

Growing up, it seems I was  always waiting for something.  To be old enough to go to school.   Old enough to walk to school.  Old enough to ride a bike to school rain or shine.  But my longest wait of all was for the day I would  finally be 17 and old enough to drive our family car. 

My best friend Bub and I talked about cars and driving since Jr. High.  How cool it would be to pick up dates in a hot rod, with chrome pipes and a loud rumbling muffler.  And  a pair of fuzzy dice hanging from the mirror...ah the simple fantasies of youth are not much different from those now for us old guys dreaming about buying a red Corvette for our birthday.  

Cars were a guy thing in high school.  Bub and I were auto lovers but we were not auto shop guys. We were in the college prep track while the industrial arts students were learning skills that they actually could use after graduation.  I still don’t know wha algebra is for.  Today, with personal computers doing most of my thinking I believe knowing less about algebra and more about spark plugs would have been a much used of my time back then in the dark ages.   Just as Bub and I had our acceptable madras outfits in our circle of friends, most shop boys too had standard but more practical outfits.  Tight lack jeans, hard toe work shoes and white tee-shirts with a pack of Luckies rolled up in a sleeve.  They hung by themselves in the  basement inner sanctum of our school and rarely ventured out to participate in anything schoolish, They spent their days dreaming of owning a repair shop and getting under a never ending parade of  hoods and tinkering.

Bub and I were the same age and played the same sports.  We both turned 17 in early November and went together to get our “driver's permits”.  But with football practice and weekend games we didn’t have the time to practice driving until after the season.  The weekend after our Thanksgiving Day game ended sports for us for a while my dad picked up a State driver's manual , "Driving in New Jersey"  20 pages of rules, laws, regulations and the unwritten "rules of the road" that I had to study for the written part of the drivers test.  Several weeks later I took the 50 question test.  To pass one needed to get at least 40 right multiple choice answers  to go on to the next step.   I breezed through it because I had spent more time reading about always staying to the right unless passing  than I did for a math test.  I did get one question wrong.  “Which is color light is on top of a standard traffic signal?”  Now,  I saw traffic lights everyday for years but I couldn’t remember that important factoid - I checked green but the answer was red!  I still remember that mistake because the manual also called the yellow light amber which nobody called it  - I still think amber is more orange than yellow, but that’s an art major for ya.  

A few days after the test I had my one and only driving lesson offered by the school with 3 other students (that made me nervous) and a teacher who had the worst job in the school.  We rode  in a new car (which also made me more nervous) with two brakes and an automatic transmission.  The vehicle was donated to the school by a local car dealer and had a big sign on the back bumper that embarrassingly announced “Caution Student Driver”.  The  teacher nervously smoked the whole time.  I was first to drive and I made my way to a nearby “country” road rolling along at about 12 miles an hour in a 40 MPH zone.  As a farm truck whipped by me, Mr. N.  said, “Maybe you should go a bit faster.”  After about five minutes I went back to the school and the next driver took the wheel.  That was the only instruction I got from the school but I did get out of gym class for a whole morning.

That night I said that I needed to practice with our car a couple of times because it was a “stick”.  So I took a spin with him that weekend.  Our family car was a faded blue Chevy Custom ( not the Bel Air which meant it came with no trim and to my chagrin - no radio either.  It did have air conditioning if you rolled down the windows. It was obviously a used car and every once in a while a souvenir from it's past would roll out from under the front seat.  For the few years it lasted my mom  never had to worry about me speeding because the Chevy’s wheezing  six cylinders labored fiercely to do 50 on a highway.  The upside, I did learn to drive a stick that day - which has literally come in handy from time to time. 

Dad looked nervous too as I bucked out of our driveway. Using a clutch took time to master but I got the hang of it eventually after stalling the car twice..  My first drive down our main street in Millville was a thrill that I had waited so long to do.  As I drove I imagined I was  “cruising for chicks” on a Friday night.  I was quickly shocked out of my reverie when dad yelled, “RED LIGHT...ya always got to pay attention.”  And he was right.  After driving around for an hour it was time to park which was the most feared maneuver for most new drivers.  Dad suggested we go to the high school’s  stadium parking lot.  It was big and empty.  Dad put two large peach baskets with yardstick markers in them about 15 feet apart.  The first time I tried parking was shaky but to my surprise, the second time I parked like a pro.  We repeated it several more times until dad said, “Let's go home, you know how to drive”.

The following weekday dad took the morning off and came with me as I  to the driver test facility.  I signed in, showed my permit and passing grade to an inspector in a uniform  much like a State Trooper.  He was very imposing and “official”.  He got in the passenger's seat and described what was next.  I was really wishing I had taken a few more practice drives - but the Christmas break was coming and I wanted to drive my current girlfriend to the Holly Ball Holiday Dance.  So here I was with palms sweating so much that I wiped them on my pants because  they made the steering wheel slippery.  And off we went driving first around the improvised test track which had a stop light and a cross street with stop signs.  I remember to look right then left and to the right again - just like it said in the manual.  Next, I made a  dramatic  “K-turn” I went on to  the end of the track to face the final test of this semi-ordeal (that my mother BTW did 3 times over the years, passed but never applied for a license and never drove our car).

The inspector directed me to a parallel park between two large cones with red flags waving.  As my upper lip started to sweat, I parked gracfully without hitting any imaginary auto, thankful that we owned a small two door Chevy instead of the giant Buick tank that Bub would have to wedge between the markers.  The inspector said, “Nice job son, pull over there and I will prepare a  temporary license. Today you'll pay the fee at the office and your official licence will be mailed to you.”  I was jubilant.  So excited that I forgot where I was, gunned the Chevy and drove right over one of the markers.  The inspector snapped, “Hey you just bashed into a car if this was really on a street.  New Year’s Eve is coming soon, the most dangerous driving time of the year - after that accident  I  can’t give you a license today. Come back in a month and you can try again,  you will only have to park and not take the whole test - so practice getting out of a space as well as getting in  one!” 

I was mortified.  I blew my driver's test. I could not believe how stupid I was. My dad was surprised. Bub laughed (his you know what off) when we talked later  And worst of all, he told everyone in school which caused me to be the subject of great amusement until our holiday vacation.

And the most unkindest cut of all - Bub passed and drove me to the big dance Moral:  Never celebrate a win until you’ve left your space.

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PLAY BALL

Baseball was on hold for awhile because of a virus...my weekends were strange without a game of any kind on TV...But it's back and watching a full stadium last night I thought about how I loved baseball as a kid – I still do and watching the first games of the new season with heart full of hope that for my team, the Phillies – this will be their year…and my mind drifts back to my first game of organized baseball.

 “Your grandfather was a good player,” I can hear my grandmother Ethel saying that over and over as we would watch the black and white flicker on our Motorola TV as the Phillies waged a battle against the Brooklyn Dodgers – the bums.  And I made up my mind right there and then I was going to be good too – but how?  The big kids in the neighborhood never let me actually play with them on the gavel and stony field with the rag-tag chicken wire backstop at the end of third street.  But I played in my mind a lot though.  And I actually wanted to be a first baseman, a position that most kids never wanted to be, but I thought was the best as I could touch the ball at least a couple times each inning.

I could not wait to be old enough to play on a Little League team and especially get a real uniform - anything with a uniform always was a wish for every kid in my circle of pals...The wait seems unending.

   But the day came like all things we wait for – I saw a small article in the Millville Daily Republican – “ATTENTION SEVEN YEAR OLDS - LITTLE LEAGUE TRYOUTS THURSDAY NIGHT... Report to the High School field, 5:30 PM!  Yikes this was it – a try out.  Unlike today, all kids had to “make the team” – today everyone makes the team, everyone plays, everyone wins…and I sincerely believe this is detrimental to learning about life..that’s not how it was nor should be today, but that's another story.  The real beauty of trying to plays sports is that one learns that it takes hard work to succeed in a game, in life.  Today we teach our kids many different lessons – that everyone can be   “good” at everything.   But we never teach them how ...That’s the shame of it  – but I digress…back to my memory.

     All week before the tryout, after school, I tossed a tennis ball against the garage door and fielded wicked grounders.  Bang, toss, bang toss – hour after hour I practiced.  (But I was really afraid about trying out... I had never fielded a real baseball or batted one either.  I asked my grandfather - pop to play catch with me two nights in a row. We did until it got too dark to see the ball and he showed me how to hold the bat.   “Choke up, choke up”, he would said…you’ll hit more if you choke up! And most of all don't try to kill it!” This was Good advice I would soon learn.

     I was nervous all day Thursday secretly hoping it would rain on the weekend and give me a week more to practice.  But the sun was shining Saturday as I prepared to face one of the best challenges of my young life. I dressed like a matador – donning my jeans and white tee-shirt with the hope that I would come home wearing a shirt with a message that advertised a sponsor's logo. Pop drove me to the field.  

     There were many kids there from all over town and to my dismay none from my South Millville pals that I knew.  South Millville boys weren’t usually into anything that seemed too organized.  We played a pickup game 7 days a week with the big kids choosing sides and making the rules.

     I signed in and was told to join a group according to the positions we wanted to play.  There were lots who wanted to be pitchers and shortstops; just a couple joined me at first base.  We were told to stand in a line by the “coach” (somebody's dad I guessed) . He started by winging a pretty hard grounder at each of us.  I stood in the short until it was my turn – yikes the ball game a lot faster than off the garage wall.  I awkwardly dove for it and missed it.  The coach frowned.  “Here son...Take another one,” he yelled.  “Oh no!”- this one went through my legs and rolled away.  “NEXT,” he yelled.

    This was not going well.   Next we got a chance to hit and I started to sweat.  I had never really hit a hardball from anyone except pop - who I suspected tossed me easy ones to make me feel good.  An older kid who was already on a team pitched to us and my turn came much too soon.  I did my version of "Casey at the Bat'' which I had learned from watching TV.  I took a couple of practice swings and then with the bat at the ready the kid threw the pitch - Bam – the first one smacked the catcher’s glove – I didn’t even see.  Bam – another one whizzed by.  The coach yelled, “Come on kid just take a couple of swings – you can do it!”  The pitcher went into a Dizzy Dean wind up and threw a wild one high and outside – I lunged for it clear across the plate and landed in a pile outer of the batter’s box.  As I got up another of the coaches put his arm on my shoulder and urged me to walk with him to the side of the diamond.  He said, “Never played before huh?”  I said, “Not really sir…as tears started to roll down my cheeks.  He continued, “Now don’t worry, no need to cry – you're a big kid and I am going to pick you for the a Farm Team and we are going to learn to hit and field and by next year you will be a started for in the big kid's league – how’s that"?  I chirped, “Gee that would be great, but do I get a uniform”/  He smiled and said, "Not this year – but you will get a nice green tee shirt with a number on the back and a new green hat".  

   That was a start I thought as the tears stopped. And ironically, that summer I played on Chubb's Insurance a bit of an embarrassing team name for me to wear around as I was a bit "chubby"... this got a lot of laughs from my South Millville boys...But I put up with it and I learned the game. 

   The next summer I was picked to play for a regular Little League team - the Millville National Bank and I have to say -  hit a bunch of tape measure home runs that are still mentioned when I see old friend at reunions and our conversations turn to talk about sports and the good old days..."I'll never forget that homer you hit to center field...it went a mile Cal...It went a mile..." 

     My summer in the farm league made me a difference,,,made learn the basics with led to beging a much better player - I earned my hot and warm wool uniform the next year.  And learned some lessons about life which stayed with me far beyond those summer games of long ago...

     And I got to play first base.

STARS & STRIPES FOREVER!

        As I do every year I watched my old friend Jean Shepherd’s the Great 4th of July & Other Disasters and as always, I smile, get a bit misty-eyed when he closes with “…and the holidays when we were young are the sweetest of all…”

    And then...I am immediately on High Street in Millville on a hot summer’s July 4th morning with the temperature already at 96 – this was going to be a scorcher, according to my grandmother, the weather vane of the family. Already I could feel the sweat running down my back – no this wasn’t perspiration…It was sweat! And no wonder my Official Cub Scout uniform was made for camping in Siberia. Blue wool gaberdine my grandmother the seamstress reported. It was made to withstand the elements on a fall hike and roughhouse games like “steal the bacon.” It wasn’t good for July. Plus, it was dark blue, and I literally could feel the sun rays burning my shoulders through my shirt.

    However, the heat was far outweighed by the anticipation that had been building for weeks – I was not going to watch the big 4th of July parade this year - I was going to be IN the parade.

    Our pack had been practicing marching for months (all of us except Carl could march in unison).  As we waited for the Millville High band to strike it up I marveled at the many merit badges the older Boy Scouts had sewn to their uniforms. I wanted so much to pass all the tests of craftsmanship, stamina and cleanliness that it would take to earn them myself. At this point I only had one - the Webelo’s badge that heralded that I was now a Bear Cub – the first of the three levels of Cubing – to earn this I had mastered the Cub Scout pledge, motto, song, mission and knew the location of the Sears where all of the needs of scouting were sold. Mom had just bought me the Official BSA Birdhouse Kit and after the glue dried I would earn my first badge – for “carpentry“ or maybe it was “wild life knowledge”? (I would learn years later that Sears & Roebuck’s and BSA had formed a partnership that had produced one of the most brilliant merchandising schemes ever – selling millions of uniforms that could only be bought at – Sears!)

    Scout Leader, Mr. Jones cued our bugler to sound revelry or charge – I couldn’t remember which but I had heard it many times at the Saturday matinee. After he got our attention he addressed the “troops”. “Gentleman I am very please to see you’ve come to attention and at this time I want to select the scouts who will have the great honor of carrying our flags.” He had brought 3 flags in long cases.  He singled out our one Eagle scout to carry the Troop Flag, a Second-Class Scout to carry the State banner which looked like a picture of a snake and a farmer? Then to my surprise he called on me, a lowly Cub Scout, to carry the American Flag. Our proudest banner topped with hundreds of steamers that memorialized participation at the Annual Regional Camper-Ree.

    I was honored – but later my mom reminded me that he picked me because I was the just the biggest kid and Old Glory had to be the tallest flag. As I went to pick up my flag, Scoutmaster Jones said quietly, “Sorry Cal but I could only find two flag belts (leather-like holsters worn around the neck which made the flagpole easy to carry) you will have to make do.” “Yikes”, I said to myself, as he handed me the huge pole. And as I struggle to get to my spot in line he added, “And whatever you do, don’t let the flag touch the ground!”  I lined up with the other two bearers and noticed that they had light aluminum flag poles – mine seemed to be made of oak and was thicker than the end of a baseball bat. And no holder! “Yikes…”, I repeated adding the only swear word I knew.  A whistle sounded, and the high school band slowly revived up Stars and Stripes Forever (which first few bars would make me sweat from that day on) And off we went with Scout Master Jones barking a brisk cadence – Left-right-left-right…left, left…left, right, left right.

    My flag immediately started whipping wildly in the hot wind. It was marching me down the street. I needed to do something quick to get it under control – so I stuffed the end of the flag pole into one of my pants pocket which became my flag holder. This was ingenious I thought as the pressure let up on my arms – but then I realized that the weight of the flag just might make my pants fall to my knees or worse. Mortified - I bravely tried to keep up with the other two guys.  I could hear people on the sidewalks begin laughing as I marched sideways, one hand on the pole and the other on my Official Cub Scout Military-Style Web Belt with its imitation brass buckle. The sweat was now a river steaming down my back as I tried to keep in step - these older guys were proudly strutting away as I stumbled and fumbled with a load that was getting heavier by the step.

    The sun beat down and I was roasting. My Keds sticking to the pavement. The band blared on and the end of High Street looked miles away. I started to believe that I may actually carry the “star and stripes” forever.  But eventually it was over. I had made the half mile walk without fainting or letting the flag drag – and only a few hundred folks laughed at me. The only lucky part of the whole mess was that not many of my friends saw my flag fiasco – they were probably home in the shade getting ready for the roasted wieners that they were going to consume that day.

    As for me, I went straight home and went to bed; exhausted. I didn’t wake up until afternoon to devour my blackened hot dogs from the charcoal embers.  That day I learned an important lesson. Everyone who ever got to carry Old Glory from 1776 to 1956 had all taken on a very heavy burden – even a new Cub Scout like me.