Traditions

Clare likes to play Jeopardy! on her birthday because she knows her introduction into this world coincided with Final Jeopardy (Question: What is haggis?) and I appeared on the show when she was three (Final Jeopardy Question on which I bet and lost the farm: What is the Rhodesian Ridgeback?).  We’re a family big on tradition.

Apparently, that now includes a birthday dinner at Frank Thomas’ Big Hurt Brewhouse in beautiful Berwyn.  We were there last night and met the big man for the third time in a year.  He and my daughter talked about bats; she noticed at the Louisville Slugger Museum that his name wasn’t on the list of happy customers.  Thomas said he didn’t like the length of their contracts—seven years—and being locked into using something that might not feel right for him.  “What if I didn’t like the wood?” he asked in the way of a true Hall of Famer.  When we walked into the restaurant, I had made sure Mr. Thomas knew that one person in our group held the career record for homeruns in softball at Elmhurst College.  That elicited a high-five, a birthday/Christmas gift that won’t soon be forgotten.