Father's Day

A week and a half ago was Father’s Day.  That can mean different things to different people, of course.  Some people have a great relationship with their father.  For others, the relationship is more strained.  And of course, some people did not know their father, or have lost touch with him, for a variety of reasons.

I thought, though, that I would take this occasion to tell you a little bit about my father, Larry Adel.  He’s ninety-five now, and living in a nursing home in Armour.  But when he was younger, he was a very important man in our little community.  I don’t just say that because he’s my dad.  I say it because it’s true.

He was the chairman of the county hospital board for twenty-five years, and was instrumental in getting a hospital established in Douglas County.  He served on the local Coop board for many years.  He was on the school board.  He was the chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party for many years.  He held just about every office in the Delmont United Methodist church that there was to hold at one time or another.

And he was also on the Delmont Baseball Association for many years.  He coached for a few years, and helped in other ways as well, but one of his main jobs was to be the public address announcer.  He did the public address announcing at the Delmont ball park for over thirty years.  Teener games, Legion games, men’s amateur games.  He did the occasional midget or peewee game, too.

If I wasn’t playing, I would sit beside him there in the announcer’s booth.  I’d help him keep score--I learned to keep score of baseball games at a pretty young age.  I’d give the money to the kids who returned the foul balls--first dimes, later quarters.  I’d go get us a hot dog and a soda pop as the game wore on.

And we’d talk.  We’d talk about anything.  The ball game, of course--we’d root for the Delmont teams, second-guess the manager, second-guess the umpire, all the things you do when you’re watching a ball game.  But we’d talk about other things, too.  The farm, maybe.  Things that were going on in town.  Things that were in the news.  And just life in general.

We’d talk about all kinds of life things.  It’s funny how you can have a conversation during a ball game that you would never have at other times.  I suppose other people use other things for that purpose--fishing, working on cars, cooking, whatever.  But for us it was ball games.  I don’t really remember any specific conversations we had, but I remember the closeness I felt to my dad when we were sitting there at the little Delmont ball park, talking about life.

I said earlier that when he was younger, my dad was a very important man in our community.  It probably goes without saying, but he is still a very important man to me.  So I hope my dad had a happy Father’s Day.  We were not able to spend it together, but I’ll be down to see him and Mom again soon.  And I hope you some happy memories of your father, and had a happy Father’s Day, too.