{"id":5861,"date":"2010-06-17T10:29:08","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T17:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seamheads.com\/?p=5861"},"modified":"2010-06-17T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T17:29:08","slug":"the-third-sunday-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2010\/06\/17\/the-third-sunday-in-june\/","title":{"rendered":"The Third Sunday in June"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As a child, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the date of Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day. I knew my friend Bob couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out and play because his family celebrated with his dad. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d walk past his house anyway, hoping he would see me. When he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out I would hang out in the tree house; or ride my bike \u00e2\u20ac\u201c alone. <\/p>\n

When I got older, each year someone would ask me if I sent a Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day card to my dad. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcOh, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 they would say as they remembered that my father died when I was in high school. <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And it was. I felt no sadness over his death. I barely knew him. Nothing was lost; there was nothing to miss. Sometimes I felt sad about what could have been. Then I would say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll send one to my mother. She was the best father a guy could ask for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Sam cannot stand it any longer. He is just too anxious to give me my fathers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 day presents. I am awakened by an oversized birthday gift bag with a picture of a baseball glove on the side; it lands on my stomach. It is followed immediately by Sam, who tips the bag over, spilling all my gifts onto the bed. First I see a coffee maker, which would be put to good use very soon. The other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153gifts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d scattered on the bed include a breakfast bar, TV remote control, a directory of Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pre-school class, and a large envelope full of information from our realtor. <\/p>\n

I also see a collage that, I suspect, his mother helped him put together. In it are pictures she took during last baseball season. There are shots of him throwing, hitting, running, wearing the catcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s equipment, sliding into home and, of course, drinking his hard-earned Double Cola after a game. Miraculously, none of these photos includes the chain link fence that appears in nearly all baseball pictures. The fence is what separates real baseball players who wear uniforms from the rest of the world. <\/p>\n

In the upper left hand corner is a shot of Sam at bat and me pitching. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on one knee about halfway between home plate and the pitcher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mound (that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the ground is softest). The ball is in mid-air. By the way Sam is focused, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure he hit it way out there. <\/p>\n

There is something else about the picture that strikes me. Sam is playing baseball and I am coaching and pitching to him. He was five years old and in his second year of tee ball, and it will never happen just like that again. But we have a picture of it and that picture is on my collage. What a great gift I received that Fathers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Day, that third Sunday in June. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the date of Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day. I knew my friend Bob couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out and play because his family celebrated with his dad. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d walk past his house anyway, hoping he would see me. When he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t come out I would hang out in the tree house; or ride my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":700,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8466,8478,1804,514,8473,8470,8463,8469,8475,8465,8471,169,8464,8474,8477,7500,8476,8472,8467,8468],"class_list":["post-5861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-baseball-glove","tag-baseball-pictures","tag-baseball-players","tag-baseball-season","tag-birthday-gift","tag-breakfast-bar","tag-chain-link-fence","tag-coffee-maker","tag-collage","tag-double-cola","tag-fathers-day","tag-friend-bob","tag-left-hand-corner","tag-pre-school","tag-realtor","tag-rest-of-the-world","tag-sadness","tag-tree-house","tag-tv-remote-control","tag-upper-left-hand-corner"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t