Cornfields

Not all the fields have been cut down yet. Some will be cut into corn mazes - it's another way for farmers to generate a little income and give families and children something to do.

So... the World Series is underway (for you non-US-based readers of my blog, that's baseball). I grew up in Detroit, and for most of my childhood our team, the Tigers, weren't very good, rarely in contention. I didn't much care, though I (I was an Artist!), and I dropped out of Algebra II without finishing the class. (I wonder now that I was allowed to do it!) That summer, I realized I'd made a mistake and wanted to continue, so I had to catch up by myself so I could rejoin the rest of my class. Every night, I'd sit out on the screen porch with my dad, working on my algebra and listening to the Tigers on the radio, (the legendary Ernie Harwell at the microphone) my dad keeping me company and giving me moral support. (I don't think he was much help with the math.) I completed the whole semester during the month of August, doing a few days' worth each night. (A game lasts about 2 1/2 hours-you can do a lot of math in that amount of time!)

I think maybe it was the last summer before my parents split up, so the last time he was in that house. So, I associate the Tigers with family, hard work, taking responsibility, and of course, spending time with my dad, who for my entire childhood had told me about the time the Tigers had won the World Series, back in 1967.

They did make it to the World Series once after that, in 1984, when I was in college. They won - beating, I think, the White Sox - I remember because a friend was from Chicago and rooting for the even more hapless Sox. My dad sent me a poster of Kirk Gibson making the famous series-winning home run, but it wasn't "cool" so I didn't put it up in my dorm room! Sorry, Dad! Send me another one this time when they win and I promise I'll put it up in my office!