Super Series Baseball Round Rock

Super Series Baseball Round Rock

America is My Life

If you look at a list of “Who’s Who” from the year I was born, my name will not be listed.  Mine was just another of many names handed out that year to remain virtually faceless.  The list of deaths for that year, however, is notable with more recognizable names like Bogart, Byrd and McCarthy to mention just a few.  Yet, neither birth nor death, or even a name is as important as the individual history that transpired throughout and the country where it occurred.  As many were closing their last doors in this country, many others were just opening their firsts.  Such is life in America. 

In October of the year of my birth, people raced outside to watch Sputnik fly overhead and witness the world move into a new age.  That same year, “Wham-O” introduced the “Pluto Platter” Flying Saucer disc, (later known as the “Frisbee”), Jack Kerouac introduced his autobiographical novel “On the Road”, and America’s Oldest Teenager, Dick Clark, introduced the nation to such creative analysis as “I really liked the song because it had a great beat and it was easy to dance to” when American Bandstand went nationwide and began its 30-year run.  All of us born that year were immediately introduced to American culture as we were introduced to life.  

For many, it happened through those small, round “Black and White” TVs that became the electronic babysitters we shared with our human babysitters.  We watched the “educational” shows of the time; “I love Lucy”, “Sea Hunt”, and “Sky King”, and remember Sam Jaffee saying, “Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity”, as he wrote down the symbols to introduce another episode of “Ben Casey”.  Oh, we did not want to watch those shows.  We were just learning about America and learning about life.  We watched whatever the human babysitter wanted to watch and the best of whatever the electronic babysitter and its four channels had to offer.  The TV sets still had vacuum tubes, the record players still had needles, and our radios were still AM.  The world was just one square block large, but growing rapidly.  We headed off to school alone and on foot. 

All throughout our elementary education, we walked to school.  Like so many others in our peer group, we learned to “duck and cover” and ate school lunch off plastic, washable and reusable plates in between reading volumes of “Dick and Jane”.  The video games we played were baseball, basketball and football played outside on real grass, on real dirt, and on real asphalt.  By the end of the decade, we saw men land on the moon, witnessed the spectacle of Woodstock, and were frightened by images of war coming from a place call “Viet Nam”.  Then, we were off to Junior High.  We did not have “Middle School”. 

At Junior High, “Iron Butterfly” rocked us with “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”, Joe Namath guaranteed victory in the Super Bowl and the miracle Mets stunned the Orioles in the Series.  Three rock legends, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all closed their final doors within a very short time, but no one was surprised.  As our three-year stint ended, we met Dirty Harry, Bruce Lee and Archie Bunker before heading off to High School.

In those final three years, Aaron topped Ruth, the “Fonz” topped the ratings, and “Tania”, Patricia Hearst, topped the news.  American involvement in Viet Nam ended, “Carrie” ended prom for everyone, and Lynette Fromme’s attack on President Ford ended with an unloaded pistol.  As always, there were beginnings, too.  “Monday Night Football” began with Howard Cosell, the Watergate investigation of Richard Nixon began, and “Saturday Night Live” began its first season with John Belushi.  With culture and history in tow, we all headed off to college to find our places in the world and begin our adult lives.  Our worlds were expanding.  What was once only as big as the boundaries of the blocks we lived on now became as big as only the boundaries of our imaginations.  Through it all, we watched doors both open and close as we shared a collective history and a collective past that had its similarities to which we added our own differences.  That was America. That is still America.

America never has been perfect, and has probably provided more people with insurmountable hardship than it has provided with unlimited affluence, but the legacy goes beyond that.  Despite its shortcomings, America still provides more intangibles, more freedoms, more choices and more opportunities than any other country in the world.  We all grow up together, share a collective history together and mark the milestones together, but, ultimately, the history we create for ourselves is our own; a history we make our own in the only country we can do that, America.  It happened to us, and it is happening to others all around us everyday of our lives from birth to infinity.  As one door closes, another one is opening up.  What we, ourselves, add between those doors is our history and a history we can only make in America. 

No, I may never make anyone’s “Who’s Who” list, and no one may ever care to study my own, individual history.  Yet, when I look back on the events that occurred throughout my life and the lives of my peers, I see them through the eyes of an American.  From the time our first doors open until our last ones close, we are all making our own histories and adding them to the collective history of America.  “E Pluribus Unum”, “From many, one”, is the motto of this country and, to me, reflects the collective conscience of our nation.  America is a nation of individuals contributing to the life of a country.  No matter which part of this country you live in or grow in, America is your life, America is our life and, America will always be my life. 

About the Author

Gaming Round Table Reflections #4- Season 2 Intros

It is very easy to get into the habit of pulling off the ball. This is especially true for power hitters. Have you ever seen a power hitter hit a home run and thereafter, he can’t couch the ball? What happened? The home run took him out of himself. So as he pivots, he is also pivoting his head. Read the rest of it here: Click Here