Full Circle

Elmhurst College had a Memorial Day treat for its graduating seniors, a Kane County Cougars game.  Clare loved everything from the bone-jarring bus ride to the walk-off homerun in the bottom of the eleventh.  Coincidence or not, this going-away gift happened at the same place we took our daughter for her first-ever ballgame.

It was the Fourth of July, 1994; Clare was four months shy of her third birthday.  She can’t remember anything about it, except maybe for the blimp, Goodyear or MetLife.  I taught my little girl how to listen for a blimp by its engines.  “When you hear it, you’ll see it,” I said.  Pretty soon, Clare was convinced that, “Daddy, I have blimp ears!”  I still tease her about that.

I have a daughter who knows how to score games and hit her cuts from right field.  Now, if we could just find a way to keep her hitting.