We have our memories

After my post about my memories of Vince Lombardi (below) a dear friend Barbara Smyth wrote to share her childhood sports memories. She and George married after he finished Yale in 1952 and live today at Franke at Seaside in Mt. Pleasant, SC. 

Memories are made of this

George and I were not football fans as we grew up, we were Brooklyn Dodgers fans through and through since we lived in Brooklyn and our families went to games throughout the season and I listened to games on the radio after school so I could tell my Dad what happened to OUR team when we had dinner that evening.  When Mom, Dad and I went to Ebbets Field, we sat in the bleachers for 50 cents each and always a double header which gave us the most baseball for our money.  We packed a picnic lunch in a tiny cardboard suitcase with a quart of lemonade for the 3 of us, and off we went.

George's family sat behind first base in the seats bought for Smyth-Donegon Plumbing Supply Co. customers whenever they were not used for business.  After a number of years, they electrified Ebbets Field and there were 14 night games that first season.  Sometimes, Poppa Smyth would give George and his sister tickets to take a friend, and when I was so lucky to be asked, I would be all dressed up like all the other ladies at the game with white gloves, stockings and heels, and a dress, and he would have on a suit and tie, and if his dad went, he would wear a fedora and a suit.  Everyone dressed like that for a Dodger game in the 1940s!  Far cry from today's styles! 

We have wonderful memories of those times - I think we had more dates at Ebbets Field in those years than any other place, including a World Series game in 1952.  So when the Dodger management got approval in 1957 to move the team to LA in we were heart broken.  The team had united everyone in Brooklyn - how could they take that away from us?  I could go to work in NYC in summer and as I hung on a subway strap, I could talk to the unknown guy next to me and ask about a certain catch by Dolph Camilli or fantastic catch by Pete Reiser out in center field - everyone listened to the games on the radio reported by Red Barber, live from the field or sent in by teletype and he would add enthusiasm just like he was watching it in person. You could talk to anyone in the grocery store or on the subway - it was OUR team!!!  Now that property is a huge high rise apartment complex.  

At least we have our memories!  Our childhood was great!

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A look back in sorrow

Yesterday I turned on my cable system and found myself one minute into an NFL film on the life of Vince Lombardi. I sat there for the next hour re-living the exciting sports days of the 1960s. I have been a Green Bay Packer fan since my high school days and when Coach Lombardi went to Green Bay in 1959 he breathed fresh life into the NFL’s smallest franchise and I was optimistic. 

His hard-edged style turned the Packers into the most envied and successful franchise in the 1960’s, leading them to five NFL Championships, and victories in Super Bowl I and II.

Twenty-five or more years later, after I was retired, my wife and I were driving to Alaska from South Carolina and she was looking at a book of maps and my pre-planned route. She asked why we were going through Wisconsin, and I said that was how one got to Canada. She said that was ridiculous and I agreed. “I want to go to Green Bay,” and she just smiled. She knew the lure of the Packers. 

The first day in Green Bay started with a tour of the stadium, along with a dozen or so others. The docent pointed to one end of the field and asked if anyone on the tour knew what that was. I quickly replied, “That’s the South end zone where Bart Starr dove to glory in the Ice Bowl and the Packers won their third straight NFL championship.” I knew. Packers 21, Cowboys 17. 

My two oldest sons (12 and 9 years old) and I had watched that game in 1967, glued to the black and white TV, anxious all the way. In the final four and a half minutes the Packers drove 65 yards, culminating with Starr’s quarterback sneak. It was third down, no time outs left, 13 seconds on the clock and there would be no time to kick a 4th down field goal and tie the game at 17 all. Lombardi told Starr to go for broke.

The coach went on in 1969 to the Washington Redskins (where he was given a part ownership in the team) and in 1970 died from cancer. One of the saddest days in sports history. As the film showed his funeral in St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York City, I had tears in my eyes, even after all these years. 

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Matthew KO's Kayaks

Matthew KO’s Kayaks

Like the heavyweight it was, Hurricane Matthew tore through Georgia, South and North Carolina in early October leaving havoc and misery for many residents in its path. Downed trees, collapsed roofs, flooded streets and homes, water and sewer lines broken, caskets disinterred, debris everywhere. Emergency services and first responders taxed to the max. There was a report of a man who called a pizza delivery service to take a pie to his grandmother and tell her to call him. They did, she did. 

At my house there was no serious damage. One limb from a neighbor’s tree fell across the edge of the roof but it was harmless. My cleanup was easier than for thousands of others. 

All around Moss Creek, the last gated community before reaching Hilton Head Island, the affects of the storm can still be seen. It will be weeks before all the debris is carried away and restoration can begin. The golf courses haven’t re-opened yet. Horrors. Psychiatrists are on hand. (Just kidding.)

Lesser known damage sites include this kayak storage area at Moss Creek. This is at the marina where at least two boats left in the water to ride out the storm capsized. 

  

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Gratitude in Life

Why I am grateful

When I woke this morning, October 2, 2016, it was the first day of my life I was 85. I am a guy who has had a good life; one who studied, worked, laughed and cried, and loved and lost.  During the past week I looked back on the many people and life events I have to be truly thankful for. My attention is with specific individuals and cohorts of people whose place in my life is deeply personal to me. By listing them here I hope to pay homage to them and let it be known publicly how truly grateful I am to:

• a loving God for the blessings of life and overlooking my failures and foibles.
• my country - the USA - for the privilege to live in freedom and opportunity to dream, to fail, to succeed. 
• my parents, Francis C. and Anne C. (Wynn) Archibald for giving me life.
• my siblings, children and extended family members who make life interesting and fun.  
• the public school teachers and Xaverian Brothers who instructed me through high school.
• my higher education professors and teachers who opened wide the doors to knowledge.
• Ed Cavanaugh who helped me get my first job as a teen-ager.
• Ed Quigley, part-time employer and kind friend who urged me to join the U.S. Air Force.
• Lt. Col. John A. Brock, USAF, mentor and career facilitator.
• the men and women who made my working life challenging, successful and pleasurable.
• Carl Meynardie, publisher of The Hanahan News, who gave me a column and expanded a voice.
• the friends and allies who supported my political and elected service. 
• the medical practitioners who take care of me.
• my late wife, Mary Frances Cooper, who married me, loved me, and gave me five children.
• my children who each developed in a different way and make me proud to be their father.
• my late second wife, Joyce L. Wahlrab, who loved me unconditionally.
• the innumerable men and women who touched my life, and I theirs, during these 85 years.

The timeline of a life is uncertain, but I look forward to the years ahead. I pray for long life, that I might love and serve My Lord, My God, and assist those in need in some small way.

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