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Close to Nowhere
By Linda Jones Softball and fireworks! • Our softball game was rained out Monday night. I was shocked that I was disappointed. Friday
night, my youngest granddaughter Remy “did good!” She played well in
the outfield — if she’d been two inches taller or could have managed a
two-inch taller jump, she’d have caught a pop fly ball for an out —
with runners on bases. She did get and throw to the pitcher several
other hits. She got a good hit, making it all the way to second base; then all the way home on another batter. Don’t
ask me who won. I don’t know. I know there is a scorekeeper and I know
she keeps score, but no one on the teams (ours or theirs) is ever quite
sure who won. The kids, who are all friends, schoolmates or attend church together, aren’t interested in that much anyway. And
since the parents all cheer for whoever is at bat or whoever catches
the ball, it’s really difficult to tell who’s on which team anyway. Perhaps
that’s why when Pistol and I were sitting in the bleachers Monday night
saying we were bad parents/grandparents for wishing it would rain, we
both knew we didn’t really mean it. The one
thing we really did wish for was a breeze or for the sun to go behind a
cloud or something to drop the temperature from the sweltering 150
degrees on those bleachers to at least 100! • We play ball at the Northwest Side Civic Center just outside Harmontown and about a mile from my church, Free Springs UMC. For years, the civic center was an empty, deserted building, going to rust. Not now though. Thanks
to a lot of hard work from a lot of neighbors, it is again a thriving
community center. And it really shines on the 4th of July! The
civic center always puts on a spectacular pyrotechnics display! And
there are great cooks — we have the standard fare — hamburgers, hot
dogs, etc., but they’re really good — as my oldest granddaughter says
“they’re yummy!” While this year’s fireworks
promise to be as spectacular as always, there is a very sad note —
Keith Spencer, one of the pyromaniacs and a past president of the civic
club, is in the hospital. He’s had serious surgery and is facing chemo
and radiation treatments. Keith and Becky, along with their 16-year-old
daughter Jessie, are mainstays at the civic center and are greatly
missed! Come sparkle with us Saturday night — about 10-12 miles down Hwy. 310 from Hwy. 7 South. Come hungry!
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