Happiness. It's relative.
We went to the Brewers’ Opening Day. We hadn’t been to a baseball game since October 2019. This is a big deal because one of us is a rabid baseball fan. The other is way less intense about it.
Our seats were in the section in front of the new Bacon Shop so we smelled bacon frying for the entire game. It was weird, like mom was back there rustling up breakfast and reading the morning paper. There were people walking around with cups full of bacon. We had hot dogs.
The beer was eleven dollars. Yesterday, I paid $8.99 for a six-pack of New Glarus Spotted Cow.
I did okay with my omnipresent Covid anxiety until I was completed boxed in by breathing people. Then, I caved and put my mask on.
The late afternoon sun shone on the field and it was lovely.
A 13-year old girl’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was soaring and incredible and made me tear up. Then the 12-year-old brother of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Waukesha Christmas parade threw out the first pitch and he fired it straight as an arrow right over home plate, square in the strike zone. His dad was the catcher.That alone made coming worthwhile.
Brewers beat the Cardinals 5-1.
There’s something about the Star Spangled Banner… I have loved it since my first visit to the US when I was nine and became besotted with all things American: so stirring. Attending my very first rodeo in Texas I stood belting it out amongst cowboys with hats held over hearts, the tears pouring down my face at the dream-come-trueness of it all, until I could barely sing for my sobs and turning to clutch the hand of the true cowboy next to me -Dwayne from North Dakota- realised he was crying too. And now I can’t think of it without getting emotional all over again.
When I lived in France, my friends used to tell me that a country needed a revolution to get a good national anthem, hence the UK’s sad dirge.
Opening day for the Red Sox here today.
I am moved beyond belief by the note about the little boy throwing a perfect pitch. Someone had a very good idea to invite him and his dad.
I love these moments!