The Past is in the Past, but..........

THE PAST IS IN THE PAST, BUT.............

I had something happen today that brought me back to my younger days. I won't tell you how far back. You'll probably be able to guess after reading for a few moments. This was something totally unexpected, but since it happened has made me stop and think about nostalgia, its purpose in our lives and how it affects us today.

I was sitting waiting to go to a doctor's appointment at the VA medical center. You know, you find magazines to read to pass  the time. These magazines are contributed by veterans cleaning out their homes and apartments of old stuff. Usually the name and address on the magazine has been torn out to protect their privacy.

Anyway, I picked up a Sports Illustrated from the table and started to read. I try to find the date before I start reading just to get an idea of the age of the information. It wasn't too far back, May 2011. I didn't see anything attractive in the contents so I just started going through it in hopes of finding something to occupy my attention.

Sure enough, I found it. It was an article about a show I had forgotten about--ABC's Wide World of Sports. The article was celebrating its creation 50 years ago. As I read it, I noted the corniness of its author. When someone writes an article with a lot of that, I know he didn't really get it. And the content of the article proved it. Oh, it was written well. But he did not capture the feeling of what that show did for all of us then. That's another story for another day.

I grew up in the Los Angeles area. An earmark event that I feel affected me was when we moved to Gardena, north of Wilmington where I lived my very early years. I remember that because I started being affected by professional sports. The Los Angeles Rams had already been there since 1946. The then Brooklyn Dodgers moved to LA in 1958 and then the Minneapolis Lakers came in 1960. As a young boy of 9 that's all I knew. I grew to love listening the the Dodgers and Lakers on radio.

But then Wide World came on the scene. I believe it was a 90-minute show displaying competition in other than "The Big 3" I've already mentioned. I saw figure skating, ski jumping, downhill skiing, bobsledding, luging, ice hockey, etc. I saw the daredevil antics of Evel Knevel, the brash boasting loud mouthed Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali)  was on a number of times, etc. I learned about the Olympics from Wide World and looked forward to seeing that competition every four years. I learned that other countries of the world had different sports from what I knew and that their citzenry were as passionate about these sports as we in America were passionate about baseball. That sport was king in the late 50's, and the '60's.

I look back on all of this with fond memories. But I do not live there. That world looks like ancient history compared with our world of today. However, it serves a purpose. All of these things I experienced back then make me who I am today. Yesterday I expressed my love for college football; today, it's baseball. Those two things drive me some days. I am passionate about both of them. I live in an area where baseball fans are not as passionate. I find myself looking for someone I can talk to about the game. I found one who is a representative of an online university when I was considering my future educational goals. We talked more about baseball than about education. Then there's my brother. After being apart for so many years, we are bonding again. Our love for each other is increasing. The bonding agent that is making this happen is baseball.

The past has formed us into who we are today. Oh, things do change and we change with them. But there is still that core deep within us that will always be there as our life's foundation. No matter what other may things will happen around us, that core will give us strength to endure and seek for the happiness and joy they provide. The past does have its purpose.

See ya