On the Way Out
Vol. 3
Part 8
A bucket list, maybe...if not maybe a rousing game of cards...a couple of quotes from The Rookie...and a quick check in on Johnny Dugan.
Us old-timers may still have a bucket list. Granted some of our buckets are rusted out with holes in the bottom, but good enough to use to water some of the outdoor plants. On the other hand, my bucket is turned over and currently rolling down the hill. I must chase after it. If I catch that old bucket and turn it over, maybe I'll fill it with some dreams...dreams of hitting the road, exploring nature, head for the ocean, arriving just as the sun descends for the day. Yes, and just maybe see a great grandson again...one I haven't seen for over a year...one that is growing so fast, he'll be all grown up and heading down the tracks before I get there.
And yes it is time to do some dancing...
As we age, our hopes and the stuff in the bucket begins to dwindle. Can we do it? Can we just pack up and go? Probably not. For some, like Fern in Nomadland, it looks easy enough. Or very hard, if you look at it from a different point of view. Great flick by the way, an academy award winner for Best picture, Best Director and Best Actress Award for Francis McDormand, who played Fern in the 2017 neo-Western drama.
There are so many things us old folks -- men and women -- want to do. Of course, we have lived a lifetime of being practical, solving stuff, putting out fires...living, like everyone else, a normal -- as we can -- life. I know. What is normal anymore?
Dreams and wants. Us seniors, have had them over the years. I recall a scene from the baseball movie, The Rookie, when Jimmy Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) is asking for his father's advice about playing baseball again at such a late stage in his life. Jim Morris, Sr. (played by the great character actor Brian Cox) responds to his son's question:
"Your grandfather once told me it was ok to think about what you want to do until it is time to start doing what you were meant to do."
Of course, at the time Quaid's character was half my age, close to 40 years younger than me...and many of my readers out there...and we are talking baseball.
Another great scene involving the two actors was near the end of the flick, after Jimmy had just entered a major league game in Arlington, Texas, at the age of 39, when Cox (I mean Jimmy Morris, Sr.) said: "Watching you out there tonight...not many father's get to do that."
As I've said, in previous posts in my On the Way Out series, I have more questions at my age and very few answers. But the spirit, the attitude is still there. What is down the road for us old-timers -- the old-timers that still dream...still follow a bucket list -- if they can?
My only advice: Go after that runaway bucket, pick it up and turn it over and begin to live again. Yes, I know for some...for many...that's just not in the cards. For some: cards may be the answer. In my fiction book, the middle-reader yarn, The Return of Johnny Dugan -- the sequel to Billy's Victory, a group of men meet up every Saturday at a sports pub and the dialogue begins:
Sam Marino enjoys every Saturday morning.
He walks the three blocks to the Sportsmen’s Club, one of the few businesses on Main Street which continues to attract plenty of happy go-lucky patrons.
Unfortunately, the only downer in Sam’s little stroll is the fact he passes by Rasmussen Stadium.
Sam was the head groundskeeper at the stadium, but was forced into retirement seven years ago when there was no longer any use for his services. Sam tries his best to keep his eyes glued to the sidewalk. He still has the keys to the old place and if given the opportunity from the town officials, Sam would unlock the gate, go inside and, in no time at all, whip the stadium into shape.
Pearl City should be celebrating the stadium’s twenty-fifth anniversary next summer, instead it sits, ignored, as the cars zip by the old, historic field, leaving behind nothing more than maybe an ad section to an old Gazette newspaper, bouncing helplessly down the sidewalk at the corner of Third Street and Main.
Sam checked his watch. He had made the jaunt in record time. At sixty-five years of age, Sam was proud of himself in his ability to walk at such a brisk pace. He was in shape, and he figured all those years of hard work at Rasmussen had a lot to do with him being so physically fit.
Sam quickly crossed the street and entered the tavern. The bartender Fred Warren was busy cleaning glasses and the boys were already sitting at the corner table, preparing for their first game of rummy.
“Come on, Sam. We’re ready for you, got your seat all warmed up for you.” Clyde Wilkinson said, as he shuffled the deck of cards.
Sam sat down and took a glance at the clock above the bar. It was ten o’clock. Thirty five minutes later, Sam had a winner.
“Clyde, I don't know how you do it.” Walter Monroe said. “I can tell by just looking in your eyes that you are about to lay down those cards of yours. You always start out with the best hands and get ahead of us.”
“Yeah. I know, Walter,” Clyde Wilkinson said. “But you know what they say?”
“No, what do they say and who’s they?”
“Well, I’m not sure who said it, but somebody said it.”
“All right, for goodness sake,” piped up Nelson Peabody. “What do they say?”
“They say, it’s not how you start the game, but how you finish the game,” Clyde chipped in.
“Thank goodness we got that settled,” said Sam, who let out a smile and yelled “rummy” as he carefully placed all his cards on the table.
“Why, Sam, you old coot. You caught us looking,” Clyde said.
“No, I caught you talking.”
All four of them had plenty in common. They loved to play cards, take jibes at one another and they loved baseball. There wasn't a Saturday that went by without a lengthy discussion about America’s favorite pastime.
That was the beginning of Chapter two of the book, but you get the idea. There are many of us out there...with plenty of time left in our lives...get out there meet people...communicate with your fellow seniors. So, if you can't pack up and head out for the north country find a card game and get to winning.
That's all for today.
Middle photos: My great grandson on the right track...and finding autumn leaves.
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