Mature Life Features

. . . and Easter Sunday

are coming up this week for Christians.

Jewish Passover begins Wednesday.

And we’re about midway through

Islam’s month-long Ramadan.

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Many Memories are Good

When thinking of nothing during shower time, bits of good memories will dance through my mind and I can flesh them out while I’m toweling off the water.

One that scrambled in recently slipped in on the shoulders of an old home town pal who happened to be on the same teams in a couple of softball leagues years later in a city far from home. One of them was in an outlaw league that was so-called because it played on Sundays when regular city league games were rarely scheduled.

These were fun games that attracted top players from throughout the region. One Sunday we arranged for a group of Kitchener-Waterloo Press Club pickup players to play the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League along with whatever pickup players they could get.

We had a particularly quick and blazing whip-arm pitcher named Wayne Rehkopf along with  former Montreal Canadiens hockey goalie Bill Durnan, who is ensconced in the Hockey Hall of Fame and is listed among the 100 greatest players of all time. He is also in the Canadian Softball Hall of Fame as one of the all-time greatest pitchers.

I was the catcher.

A long-time and active member of the Press Club was Bob Rafferty, who also coached the K-W Dutchman during their world championship and Olympic years in the mid-’50s. Even National Hockey League and Russian national hockey teams refused to play exhibition games against them because they were so good..

Bob, like most of the couple hundred folks who populated our spectator crowd this particular Sunday, got to enjoy the sauce more than the spectacle as the day wore on.

But then, as we clattered aboard our bench to take our turn at bat for the sixth inning, Bob came over and sat down beside me, slapped me on the thigh and said, “You know, Scag, I thought you were too small, but you’re a helluvan athlete; yep, you’re an athlete.” And tottered off.

I don’t recall playing any better after that, but I’ve felt a helluvalot better ever since.

There are many overlooked compliments in our day-to-day lives, however, that we should think about.

 It’s a major compliment that your spouse picked you, and is still putting up with you. What about your friends, the ones that picked you? You should feel complimented that they still share their times – good and bad – with you.

When the children keep returning home to visit is a gold-standard compliment we can all use. “You done good, mom (or pop),” sits proudly on the top shelf of anyone’s Laudatory Library.

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