Good Mornin’! Good Mornin’!
It’s early May, there should be countless innings of baseball going on in and around high school, college and all levels of professional diamonds.
I was all ready to dig into listening to some Delta State baseball with their new coach, Rodney Batts in the dugout.
But that was cut short.
Was looking forward to seeing my Rebels make a run for Omaha and the College World Series with Ben Van Cleve helping lead the way but that was sidetracked as well.
And my New York Yankees didn’t even make it out of the gate before “Rona” showed her nasty head and robbed us all of Opening Day.
As a Public Address announcer, spring sports are awesome. With sunshine and hope abounding on each level, I get to see everything from baseball to soccer to field hockey to lacrosse and even track and field. It was still cold when Rona reared her ugly virus head and shut down my side gigs.
I work at home as a freelance writer and that gets me out of the house and into fellowship with coaches and athlete’s families. I miss that aspect.
I miss being part of their lives and shouting out their on-field accomplishments for all to hear and relish. I miss the cramped press boxes and working together to figure out who got the assist, who got the goal and was that an error or a hit.
Rona has taken much from us all and changed our lives in ways unfathomable just a few short months ago. I write about how different industries are affected and are working to adapt and survive.
There’s no virtual way to eat or get a haircut and all of our government officials need to figure out how to get those industries back to full strength.
We need to fill our churches, though the virtual worship and teaching has been amazing and out of the box, it’s time to warm a pew and remember where we sit.
Choir lofts need to have voices and not empty shadows.
Rona needs to move on so we can get back to some type of normalcy.
In the meantime, I’ll keep putting on my mask to go out in public, wear my gloves and use my Clorox wipes to ensure my family’s safety.
But the one thing I miss in this new way of doing things is actually smiling. Behind our masks it’s hard to recognize emotions and feelings.
I smile at folks in the grocery store but they can’t see it. But I reckon they can’t also see the mad face and disgust I display when they reach for the last four rolls of Charmin either.
I can’t wait to take off the mask that hides my lack of shaving and keeps my bad breath at times hemmed up. Rona needs to move on and die out.
We need our sports, we need our hardware store conversations, we need our hairdressers and waitresses to be able to sit us down and solve our hair and hunger problems.
Virtual Rotary and Lions Club is great but being elbow to elbow over a plate of Shorty’s Mobile delectable goodness with a live speaker is something that can’t be replaced.
Rona definitely needs to be defeated – and soon so we can Play Ball, discuss the world’s problems over Brady’s counter, beat the Baptists to lunch on Sundays and stop looking like a bunch of long-haired hippies from the 1970s. I’m more than ready.
