This was one of those times when things seem to go wrong, but in the end we have a really good time. This particular event took place when we were visiting old friends in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania \u2013 Jeb and Pat. It was on the tail end of our \u201cCivil War and Dollywood trip in which we got rained on a whole bunch besides being rained out of one good game.\u201d As you can tell it was the \u201cwet\u201d weather that was prominent on the trip, but it was not the only thing.\u00a0 Early on we had spent some time at Gettysburg (where Dan found someone\u2019s 32 year Alcoholics Anonymous chip at the \u201cgrove of trees\u201d\u2014the main focal point of Pickett\u2019s Charge\u2014then spent some 15 minutes trying to explain to the Park Ranger at the lost and found post why it would be important to the person who lost it. This is a whole other story in itself. To put it succinctly it appears that knowledge about how 12-step groups and what these sobriety tokens are is not within the purview of the U.S. Department of the Interior\u2019s requirements for what Park Rangers are suppose to know). \u00a0In addition, we visited Dollywood where we met up with one of Ginny\u2019s sisters and her husband (soon to be ex-husband, again a whole other story).\u00a0 Besides these two events, this trip was mostly known for the weather\u2014it seemed to rain every place we went. However, the one place it didn\u2019t rain was at the end of the trip, but other things went wrong in Harrisburg. The visit with Jeb and Pat was great; we caught up with each of them and told stories about all the mutual friends that Jeb and Pat hadn\u2019t seen in a few years.<\/p>\n
The thing that went wrong really wasn\u2019t that big of a deal in the eyes of most normal people, but it was anxiety-producing for us.\u00a0 The game was between the Harrisburg Senators <\/a><\/strong>(at the time the AA affiliate of the Montreal Expos) and the Reading Phillies<\/a><\/strong> of the Eastern League. One of the main rules of doing a minor road trip is that when you are on a baseball trip and visiting friends you always take them to the game with you. For us, the problem is that we never make it to the field on time, at least not the time that we baseball fanatics would like. It\u2019s not our fault, really. To be polite, we just don\u2019t want to be our normal obsessive selves with friends, so we tend not to get to the park early enough to walk around it to look for old foul balls, to check out all of the food vendors to find that unique delicacy that is served only at that park, to visit the souvenir shop to see what is cool, or to get those much-needed pictures of the park for future reference. In the simplest of terms, if we\u2019re with friends, we don\u2019t have the time to do all of the other normal things that we do when we visit a new park. Part of the reason is that we don\u2019t want our friends to think we\u2019re crazy because we want to get to the park an hour and a half before the game starts (well, any crazier than they think we are).<\/p>\n Yet, in this particular case, it didn\u2019t help that Dan didn\u2019t check to see that the Harrisburg Senators had the bad habit of starting games on the half-hour instead of the normal hour, plus five minutes. And here it was a half-hour in the wrong direction! Taking Pat and Jeb was fine; they understood that we liked to get there early and we were fine in getting there only a half an hour prior to game time.\u00a0 Since you all know basic math, you can tell what the problem was\u2014as we were passing the turnstile into the park, the national anthem was being belted out. This threw Dan into a state of distraction because we still don\u2019t have our food and Ginny suffered an anxiety attack because she needed to not only get a copy of the rooster, she still had to fill out her score book and take pictures of the park. AND we are missing baseball! In the long run, it worked out, a little rushed, but we got to our seats with food in hand missing only an out or two.<\/p>\n However, this is where the story starts to get interesting and memorable. As we got to our seats on the first base side, Dan took the fourth seat where he would be sitting next to someone he doesn\u2019t know. Generally, he likes to sit on the end to stretch his legs, but he doesn\u2019t mind sitting next to new people\u2014great conversations start this way. Just as he was about to sit down, the gentleman next to him looked him straight in the eye and with no smile said to Dan, \u201cI\u2019m glad you\u2019re here. They just made an announcement that whoever was sitting in that seat has to buy each person in the whole row a beer!\u00a0 I hope you heard it when they called out section 112, row 3, seat 4 and best as I can tell that is your seat.\u201d\u00a0 Dan looked him in the eye and immediately shot back, \u201cWell, that is very interesting, because I didn\u2019t hear the announcement, but when I gave my ticket to the usher, he told me to watch out because I would be seated next to someone who was going to try to get me to by him a beer and that I should not be taken in by him.\u201d With that and a smile Dan sat down and started to watch the game.<\/p>\n Now we don\u2019t mind having conversations with others during a game; baseball is one of those sports where you can watch the game and talk at the same time. The only everyday etiquette that is violated when having a conversation is that there is very little eye contact with those you are conversing with. You may glance at each other, but generally you keep your eyes on the field and when a ball is hit or someone is stealing a base, the conversation comes to a halt. The conversation can resume once the normal routine of the game resumes.\u00a0 During this particular game, Dan mainly spoke to our friend Jeb about what was going on in his life\u2014motorcycles, teaching earth sciences, extended family, etc. Likewise, Dan expounded on things that have been going on in our lives, many mentioned in our Christmas letters\u2014our yearly form of communication.\u00a0 All the while, Dan was keeping an eye on the guy next to him, thinking that anyone who starts an encounter by trying to get Dan to buy him a beer can\u2019t be all bad. One of the things Dan noticed about him was that he seemed to mainly talk to the row of people behind us. In fact, he knew them well enough to state to them that he was going to get some food and offered to pick something up for them. He even took orders. Finally, he did the \u201cexcuse me\u201d shuffle to get past us and disappeared down the steps. Upon his return, he shuffled back past us, turned to hand stuff off to the people behind us, sat down and began drinking from a cup with a liquid obviously not a beer.<\/p>\n With that, Dan took the opportunity to say, \u201cBoy, you seem to be having conversations with just about everyone here and you buy them stuff but nothing for me.\u201d The guy smiled and replied, \u201cOh, that\u2019s just my wife, daughter and her husband.\u201d Dan asked, \u201cSo you couldn\u2019t get tickets together?\u201d He said, \u201cWell, we\u2019re here with our church group, so we have seats all around here. Dan responded, \u201cSo, if you\u2019re here with a church group, then why is the first thing you do when I get here is to try to get me to buy you a beer? You drink alcohol?\u201d\u00a0 As this part of the conversation is going on, our friend Jeb begins to chuckle; he knows exactly what Dan is doing. He is about to have some real fun with this guy.<\/p>\n Somewhat sheepishly, the guy replies, \u201cOh, it\u2019s okay. Our minister is even here and he drinks beer \u2013 we\u2019re just not suppose to get drunk or anything like that, but it is okay to have some.\u201d\u00a0 Dan replied, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll be darned, your minister drinks beer and thinks it\u2019s okay?\u201d\u00a0 The guy nodded yes, and Dan went on: \u201cYour minister must be really cool, if he lets you drink beer! Wow, that is so cool, you are really lucky.\u201d Now Dan will admit that he did over-emphasize his inflections as he was speaking, since he was being fed by Jeb\u2019s silent convulsions of chuckling. Dan leaned over to the guy and reiterated, \u201cYour minister must be really great!\u201d Immediately, Dan knew he had him hooked into his little game because he smiled at Dan and said,\u00a0 \u201cYep, he is great, he drinks beer and he even swears!\u201d Dan came back with, \u201cNo shit, he even swears! That\u2019s even better. He really is the best minister that I have ever heard about. Wow, that is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n With that Dan turned to Jeb, smiled and winked, then turned back to the guy: \u201cMy word, he drinks and swears, that is great, it is amazing, I\u2019ll be damned, that is great!\u00a0 He must be one hellava pastor.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYep,\u201d he replied, \u201che\u2019s a great pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n Again, their focus went back to the game, and at the end of the inning, Dan turned back to the guy and asked the question that set him up for the punch line: \u201cSo, tell me, what do you do for a living?\u201d He proceeded to tell Dan that he worked for a company that repairs boxcars for railroads. After a considerable conversation about the details of what his job entailed, he asked Dan the exact same question: \u201cSo what do you do?\u201d With that Jeb almost guffawed aloud, because he knew what was coming. Dan kept his eyes on the game, but leaned in the guy\u2019s direction and stated, \u201cI\u2019m a minister.\u201d\u00a0 Just as the words came out of his mouth, Dan turned to see the expression on the guy\u2019s face. His jaw dropped, his mouth opened wide in disbelief, then slowly his surprise was replaced with a wide grin and he knew Dan had reeled him in. The guy turned to his family behind us and pronounced, \u201cThis guy is a minister and drinks and swears, too, isn\u2019t that neat?\u201d\u00a0 They nodded, said unenthusiastic \u201cyeahs,\u201d and turned back to the game, leaving Dan and the guy with the impression that \u201cDad\u201d is off his rocker again talking to strangers. The guy turned back around, leaned towards Dan and, in a semi-conspiratorial tone, said, \u201cYou know, if our minister ever leaves, I think I can guarantee you a job. It\u2019s a small church, just north east of here, but if you want it, I will make sure they give it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n The moral of the story is that people go to baseball to have a good time and most of the time you meet some very nice people and, on occasion, if they start pulling your leg, it is fair game to pull theirs right back.\u00a0 Heck, you never know: \u00a0you might get a job offer out of it. To this day, Dan tells people that he has a standing job offer to be a pastor for a congregation in a town about 30 miles northeast of Harrisburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was one of those times when things seem to go wrong, but in the end we have a really good time. This particular event took place when we were visiting old friends in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania \u2013 Jeb and Pat. … Continue reading