I wrote this piece two years ago upon the death of Stan Musial. The story tells why his obituary interested me:<\/p>\n
January 21, 2013<\/p>\n
BASEBALL and FOOTBALL<\/p>\n
Stan \u201cThe Man\u201d Musial died yesterday at age 92. He was a baseball great who played for the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
The house where I grew up had a small spice cabinet on the wall in the kitchen.\u00a0 A\u00a0 little radio sat on top. Underneath was an electric outlet, and the ironing board fit nicely there for ironing my Dad\u2019s starched shirts and khaki pants.\u00a0 Ironing was my job after my mother became unable to do it and after she died.\u00a0 I would wait until the afternoon during baseball season so that I could listen to a game while I ironed.\u00a0 I knew the major league teams and the names of the players of that time (1949 -1953).<\/p>\n
I like baseball because I understand what is going on in the game. I always know where the ball is, and the scoring is easy to comprehend.\u00a0 Football, on the other hand, does not interest me that much.\u00a0 Football definitely ruled Breckenridge in that era.\u00a0 I\u00a0attended\u00a0 every high school game from the time that I entered the band in the eighth grade.\u00a0 The only games I missed were a few when I was too sick to march.\u00a0 It was more social for me than any real interest in football.\u00a0 We cheered when the cheerleaders asked us to, played when the band director fired us up, and we did a great half time show.\u00a0 Some watched every play of the game.\u00a0 Others of us watched now and then.\u00a0 It always looked like\u00a0players were just butting heads, and I was not always sure where the ball was.<\/p>\n
Pep rallies were held downtown in the middle of the main street on Fridays except when the weather was bad,\u00a0and they had to be kept inside in the gym. US Highway 180 was blocked at one intersection, and traffic detoured around it. The student body marched \/walked behind the band from the high school to that intersection.\u00a0 This highway was a major east-west highway going from the east coast to the west coast. (Imagine doing that today).\u00a0 If the games were out of town, some stores would close so that employees could go to the game.\u00a0 My sister once remarked, \u201cYou can\u2019t even buy a loaf of bread in Breckenridge on a football Friday.\u201d\u00a0 That was just the way it was.<\/p>\n
I may be the only person you know who will not be watching the Super Bowl on TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I wrote this piece two years ago upon the death of Stan Musial. The story tells why his obituary interested me: January 21, 2013 BASEBALL and FOOTBALL Stan “The Man” Musial died yesterday at age 92. He was a baseball great who played for the St. Louis Cardinals. The house where I grew up had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[168,170,172,169,167,171],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-early-days-to-1955","tag-baseball-legends","tag-breckenridge","tag-football-pep-rallies","tag-listening-to-baseball-on-radio","tag-stan-musial","tag-tx-football"],"yoast_head":"\n