Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 12:47:22 -0700 From: Charlie Ford To: type2@bigkitty.azaccess.com Subject: Cleveland, in the Second Place Although my first five days in Cleveland were somewhat dismal and rainy and chilly, the City has taken on a better personality for me. If you would have said this would happen a few days ago I would have told you that you were crazy and full of muck. The fact is that the last post reflected my feelings about as slow as they could be shown upon. I wasn't depressed but I was quite contemplative and slow with my actions. Rain does that too me sometime. I wrote "Seattle Pondering's" in the same environment, accept on the otherside of the country. How the Seattle gang doing Mikey? I was not feeling any specific trauma or anything like that. I was just alone, and that is when things and thoughts tend to come to light in a way different than when you are with people. Of course there is a difference in being "lonely' and "alone". When your lonely you tend to let sadness overcome the direction of your thoughts, and you become tied down with the negativity. I wasn't there by know means. I was happy as a lark, only a really slow lark. I think another feeling I was seeing was the frustration of once again being "out of touch". Out of touch in the sense that I could not check my e-mail, or make phone calls at will. I also had very few folks to talk too, with the most conversation happening on my way to the bath house and passing a fellow camper and saying hi. Nice the encounter may be, but definitely not as fulfilling as one in my situation would like. Besides, I am a person that has never met a stranger, as the old saying goes. I suffer from the gift of Gabb. I did meet a couple of nice folks to talk too. On Saturday morning I went to have breakfast at a little cafe called Judy's just down the road from the Park. It was there that I met Dan and Meridith. Two young people that were very interested in my trip and the fact that I was from out of town. they dropped byt he bus and we talked alm ost all evening Saturday night. Dan is a computer printer repairman, and Meridith is in college at Kent State. She and he hope to be married in the next couple years. I hope they do well and have a lot of good adventerous living in store. they say they want to travle around the country some time. I recomended that they live that dream out, and keep a diary while they do it. Good luck you two. Thanks for the conversation. Make it work, not enough couples do these days! On Monday morning I moved my lodging for the Punderson State Park to List member Neil O'Donnells home in Shaker Heights. This district is one of the older in Cleveland. The 'Shakers were a sect of religious belief, that sort of committed suicide with their beliefs. This suicide occurred as a result of one of their core beliefs, they believed that men and women should be celibate. Of course any stooge would know that no sex at all means no offspring at all, therefore leading to know sect at all. I hd to laugh when I heard this thinking of how the last couple left might have felt. I bet they went straight to bed and wore themsleves out, wondering all the while what new religion they might become a part of. The frustration the planners must have realized when, in the end, they saw that there most honorable plans for "righteousness" had failed them and had foiled their plans to take over the world, much like Pinky and the Brain. But they did leave us, as their legacy, some really good furniture to enjoy. Neil and Lori have some pieces of this fine furniture. They have a shaker rocker, and a shaker coffee table. Each piece shares a rustic simplicity that is pleasing to the eye and the surrounding house in which it sits. Nice furniture it is and quite functional the same. These are also great folks to be around. Niel and Lori have two toddlers, Katie and Colleen that are just amazing to be around. They are so small yet so bright and interactive. I haven't spent a lot of time around small children but I think I could get used to it. It totally changes a persons mental state, sometime bad, sometime good, but always in wonderous curiosity. How do they come up with the things they come up with? On Sunday evening the Indians played the Marlins in the 7th and final game of the World Series. I watched it on the radio as I couldn't pick it up on my little 6 inch TV set that seems to be biting the dust at this juncture in the trip. I will have to find another at a pawn shop. I don't know that I can live without a TV set. Actually I am sure I could, but I don't want to. The TV sort of keeps me in touch and offers some solace to the long cold boring rainy days. Many of which I am sure I will suffer in the coming two months. This was the 49th year of the Cleveland Indians existence. I am not sure how many times they have been to the Series, but I know they lost to the Atlanta Braves in 95, with the only win coming in 48. I watched Braves game and was rooting for the Braves as I always have and always will. It is my alma matter. This year I watched the Braves get beat by the Marlins, maybe the best purchased ball club in all of Baseball, and turned it off and asked myself who I would support for the Series. After some deep contemplation, I realized that I felt the Indians should win it. I felt this mainly because I don't think the Marlins deserve such a high honor. I don't think a group of guys, bought and paid for, can call themselves a team. I think they are as store bought as any club in baseball. The Indians on the other hand have suffered blood sweat and tears to get to where they are. They have grown their "team" from the ground up, and none of them are stars that shine without the other players alongside them. the city has some of the most dedicated fans of anywhere I have ever seen. They have been patient with this 'team and have stuck by them through thick and thin. Today, on Tuesday after the loss on Sunday, the fans are in the streets. They are on the Square in downtown Cleveland and are celebrating being 'second'. It is estimated that about ten thousand people are in attendance. I will have to say that this city celebrates second place better than any city I have ever seen. Baseball is a game of increments. It is a game of short goals and large leaps to success. It is the only game that is not stopped when a clock runs out, or is given a half-time. The game itself is as close as a game can get to life itself. You can relate it to business, or home, or love, or hate. Hey.....Meatloaf wrote a song about it, Kevin Costner starred in a movie about it, and who doesn't know about the "Babe', or Lou Gherig, or Willie Mays. It is our game, it is diverse, and is best played on real grass, with the sun shining overhead. It is a natural game. It relies on the wit and cunning of the men playing the game. It doesn't require a lot of brawn, or weight, or bloodshed. It does require a will to have fun, the need for speed, and a lot of critical thinking. Sometime it requires patience to wait on the right pitch, or the ability to see the ball in mid flight, and make the quick decision to swing. The pitcher has to be pin point in his aim, and the batter has to try and read where that pitch might fall. the manager has to know all of the stats, the habits and the weak spots of the opposing team. The players in the outfield have to be constantly aware of what the infield is looking like yet has to communicate all within itself as a sub-team of the larger team. Next year the Indians vow they will be back in the Series. Of course so do the Marlins, and the Braves, and the Yankees. But all in all when all is said and done, only two teams will be there. they will once again play for all the marbles and hope that their offense and defense rise to the occasion and bring home the trophy. The fans at home will sit and hope and wonder. They will curse and praise and complain, and say things like "damn, that was STRIKE!", or "Blind Ump" etc.. For a little while, one more time, we will watch and be removed from our little lives in our little tin boxes, and be transfixed on 18 men playing a simple, yet complicated game. Damn.............I do love baseball! The weather has cleared up now, and the sky has turned a nice blue. the wind is still a bit chilly but not to awful bad. At least it is not raining. The Mothership and Gus are doing fine. Gus is trying to deal with me not being around all the time. He expects that he can, and will go, absolutely everywhere with me. Sorry, but I refuse to take him in the john with me for the morning constitutional. There is only room for one in the stall. he complains a bit by barking and howling like any good hound would do, but slowly he is quieting down. I will be here a couple more days, but then I head on North. It looks as if the weather might cooperate all the way to the east coast. But if it doesn't I will deal with it. You can't complain much about what you can't control. I guess weather is sort of like your team playing in the World Series, you just have to be satisfied, and work with the outcome as best you can. Thanks for tolerating the ramblings. Charlie Ford "79" Transporter, dressed for the road The Mothership The"Turning 40 Nostalgic VW Service Tour, and Search for the Beginning of Wind". http://www.slurpee.net/~keen/charlie/charlie.html "Wider still and wider.....shall thy bounds be set"