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The Greatest Gift of All
I just found this website today, 25 years after my inception into the biggest and most proud family I will ever be a part of...the Red Sox Nation! I was poking around, trying to get in where I fit in, reading blogs and forums and looking at peoples pictures, when something occurred to me and I thought, "What a perfect first blog!" So here I go, for any who may pass over this page and wonder how I came to be here. It truly is the greatest gift of all.
My mothers mother and father grew up in two very separate parts of Ireland in the early/mid 1900's. Honest to God, they came over to America on a boat, illegal as sh*&t! First him. And her to later follow when he got word to her that the time was right! They would later pass one of the most difficult citizenship tests known to man, and begin having their 11 children, 7 girls, 4 boys, 13 Red Sox fans. It was not only the game, but the team, that grounded them in their difficult times. A win wasn't just a win...it was hope. And a loss...well a loss made heroes into humans.
My mom met my dad when he was in the Army and ended up moving around the world with him, eventually settling back in his home state of Oklahoma. I was born 1,694 miles from my mom's parents and 10 brothers and sisters, but they stayed very much a part of my life. Sad as it may sound, for the earlier part of my life, we saw my mom's family half-way across the nation, more often than my dad's family - a 3 hour drive, max! Obviously loving both families equally...my 2 brothers and I received different genes from each of them. I've found in my quarter century on earth that the Red Sox gene is one of the strongest a person can have.
My visits to MA were filled with stories from my Pa. He used to tell me I was born in the living room floor of their house...a house my Nana still lives in to this day! LOL I believed it for so long, and I remember how wide my eyes used to get when he would tell me about it, no matter how many times I had heard it before! But the other stories that grabbed my attention and widened my eyes were stories like, "The Curse of the Great Bambino", or anything he could tell me about "Bucky Friggin' Dent", Ted Williams, BIll Buckner, Johnny Pesky, Carlton Fisk, Yaz! I was his captivated little audience of one. I hope he loved it as much as I did.
My grandfather passed away 16 years ago this past Valentine's Day. It's hard for a kid to lose a grandparent any day of the week, but on a holiday...it's a constant reminder for the rest of your life of that void you now have. I was so young when it happened, but I remember it so vividly. I was in 3rd grade and my dad picked my brothers and I up from school early that day. We had our little pink & red Valentine's Day mailboxes full of cards from our friends that we had made at school. And my dad topped that off with candy for us, chocolates & a stuffed animal. When we got home my mom wasn't there. When we asked where she was my dad sat us down and told us that she was in Massachusetts because our Pa had died. I remember I still wasn't really sure what it meant, but I knew that my dad's dad had done it 3 years earlier and I hadn't seen him since. So I cried and cried and cried...until I couldn't cry anymore. And for the longest time I pretended he was on a vacation, with my dad's dad, and I would see them both again one day. I guess in some ways, my little 8 year old perception of things was pretty right on.
My Nana has early onset of Alzheimer's right now. She can remember everything that happened early on in her life just like it was yesterday. You ask her stories about my Pa and she lights up as she tells them, never skipping a detail! She still knows who everyone is, Thank the Lord for that! It's recent things that are fuzzy or blank to her.
Sometimes when I try to picture my Pa, it takes me a minute to remember what he looked like. I will never forget the plain white T, the khaki pants and work boots...but he had these glasses...and this scowl - not a mean scowl, but a scowl is definately the word to describe it...these glasses and this scowl that I have never seen on another human being since him! Sometimes it's hard for me to get it just right, and I have to picture a painting in my parents living room of my grandparents on their wedding day in order to perfectly remember him.
I wonder if my Pa would be sad to hear that sometimes it's hard for me to remember him? But then I remember the greatest gift he ever gave me, and I know he knows I think of him everyday!
When my family started their roots in America, they could have chosen any baseball team to root for. But they didn't choose just any team, they chose the Red Sox. And they didn't choose to root for them, they chose to love them! They chose a team that represents everything that is both good and bad in life. A team that teaches you about loyalty, respect and heartache. They learned early that loving something is not always enough, but sometimes more than enough. You can't love the Sox to win, anymore than you can will them to. But now we see, that after nearly a century of ups and downs, and downs, and downs, and downs...that standing by something you love...being there in good times and in bad...never failing, never faltering...honoring those past and respecting these present...it pays off! It makes you a better person in the end to have had all those downs. And even though my Pa never lived to see that one big up that was 86 years in the making...it made him a better person too.
It takes a special soul to love the Red Sox. Not just anyone can do it. The love the Sox needs is never ending. It's forgiving & forgetting AND holding a grudge...and knowing the difference between the two! It's let down after let down...but never letting go! It's loyalty in a sense of the word that can only be understood by someone who has loved the Red Sox. It's a pride so deep your bones radiate it! It is the thing in life that makes you so happy you cry, and so sad you drink...and so happy you drink, and so sad you cry!
It is the greatest gift of all that my Pa gave me! He loved the Red Sox. He taught his family to love the Red Sox. He taught me to love the Red Sox. And he loved me...in such a way only a Red Sox fan could understand!
So, it's a pleasure meeting everyone! Thanks for having me on Sawxheads!
-pinkirishsox
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