Rod's Thursday Ramblings 8/6/09

It is a rather mixed day of emotions for me. Today marks the 26th year of marriage for my wife and I. Yesterday, Terry's mother passed away at the age of 81 or 82 ( my wife was checking). My mom passed away earlier this year and both of our fathers have passed so her mother's passing marks kind of a final chapter in our lives. Dorothy was a sports fan. She was a cheerleader in high school at Milbank and my father in law used to always kid around that she was at the games but didn't know who won at the end. She knew her football though I would have to say. How she could pick winner every NFL weekend in our little freindly family wager still astounds me. She really didn't have a favorite team. It wasn't the Bears I know. My father in law was a Packers fan. Because of that, I don't think she was a Packers fan either. She liked Joe Montana in the 49ers hay day. I always accused her kiddingly that she really like that end zone shot of Montana over center, going the other way. She did become a Cubs fan I will say. And who was responsible for that? I am raising my hand! She had been in one of the nursing homes in Pierre the last 7 or 8 years. But she did get to see her grandson Mike play several basketball games in his senior year as one of the nurses would accompany her in her wheelchair up to Riggs. And she did get to see Mike and his Governor teammates on TV in the state tournament that year. As Terry and I were sitting with her in her final hours yesterday at the nursing home she still had pictures of both Mike and her other grandson Trevor on her walls and some of the newspaper writeups of their basketball and baseball exploits of several years back. Perhaps in the last couple of years she wasn't as involved in knowing what was going on in Governor sports and Post 8 Legion baseball after Mike didn't play, but for most of the 27 or 8 or 9 years that I knew her anyway, She was a Governors fan, usually dressed in some sort of Pierre green on game days. And I can still hear her sing the Milbank High School fight song! But don't ask me how the words went other it started with Milbank High!!!!!!

Good Luck to the Pierre A Teeners at their state tournament . If the weather forcast holds, it could be interesting to see if today's time frame for games runs as scheduled. At least they won't need to water the infield and outfield.