Sleeve Memories

Maybe as you get older, small things remind you more of the past and a time when life was easier and more subdued. Little events, glimpses of moments, suddenly bring back memories.

It happened the other night when I was rolling an APBA game, of all things. And this may be just some random occurance that hit me at a time when nostalgia has lately been featured heavily in my brain's playlist. It's definitely not a big event and I feel sort of silly even sharing it. Regardless, it made an impression and it brought back a flood of memories of playing this game at an earlier age.

Because Arkansas has unpredictable weather, I didn't really know what to expect the temperature to be when Holly and I prepared for our nightly dog walk the other day. Lately, the climate has varied. One day, it's 65 degrees, as it should be in the southern climes of the U.S. this time of year. Then, it rains and gets cold and the temperature drops to 40 degrees at night. We even had a dusting of snow a few weekends ago which is not ordinary for this area.

I grew up in northern Minnesota and I understand the concept of cold weather - in places it's supposed to be cold. However, down here, you get lazy with the temperatures and don't expect it to be chilly in April.

So, I threw on my Bemidji State University hoodie, a large green hooded sweatshirt bearing the logo of the university where my father taught years ago. Holly got it for me for Christmas a couple of years ago and I've worn it a lot since. It's warm, but not too warm. It's got the hood in case the wind comes a-blowin' and it's got the long sleeves that can either be pushed up or rolled down depending upon the night air chill. It's big, though, even on me and the long sleeves tend to get floppy.

After we walked the dog in the neighborhood, I decided to roll a couple of games in the 1991 replay I'm still doing. I rolled up my sleeves, sat at the APBA game desk in what we call the "baseball room" because I've got all my baseball books, cards, collections and APBA stuff in it, and began rolling the dice.

As is to happen with large, droopy sleeves, they slid down my arms and this is where the memory took over.

When I was a kid in Minnesota, and for a time in Arkansas when my family moved here, I would wear long-sleeved flannel pajamas and a bathrobe. I'd play my sports games late into the night when my parents were asleep (although the clacking of the dice in those old, plastic yellow shakers would often wake my father), and, because it was so late in the evening, I'd be decked out in the pajamas.

The thick, flannel sleeves would invariably get in the way of the dice tosses and I'd constantly roll them up. Back then, I played the APBA basketball and football games, which require a lot of dice rolling. I did the "quick" version of the NBA game, where you'd roll four or five times to finish out a single play. The sleeves became a burden and I'd try to develop a way to keep them out of play. I'd rubber band them up or use a paper clip or try to be conscious of keeping the sleeves up when i rolled. Still, they'd slide down, interrupting a rebound by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or a slam by Julius Erving or a long rainbow shot from the E-range (APBA basketball fans - all two you- know what I'm talking about) by George Gervin.

All that came back to me the other night when the hoodie sleeve got in the way of the dice roll. More than 40 years later and I've still got sleeve issues. The memories flooded back to a time when I obsessively played the basketball game, tossing long into the night to complete a game. Despite playing the faster solitaire version of the game, it took a long while to finish one contest. I sat in a wooden chair and played the game on the bed rather than the desk so I'd be motivated to finish the game before retiring for the night. I had a rule as a kid - you can't quit until the game is finished. (I find I do that now with the baseball games as well. You never leave a game in mid-iinning).

Back then my only worries were school homework, girl problems and what we'd all do on the weekend for fun. Now, those worries include home mortgages, health issues, finances, if I turned out well enough in life, being a provider, et al. It was an easier time back then; the only real static in those days was the clacking of the dice in those plastic shakers.

So, the other night, I pushed the sleeve back up, rolled a few more plays and noticed it slid down yet again. I didn't stop, though. I didn't get a rubber band or paper clip to secure the sleeve in the upright position. I just pushed them back up every so often and remembered.

Sometimes, it's best just to let things happen for the memories.

Changes

There's been a lot of changes since last time I filed something on this blog.

I no longer work as a hotel desk clerk. Don't ask for extra towels during the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m shift at one of the town's hotel, 'cause I ain't there. After five months of checking guests in, scrambling to ensure the rooms were clean, folding towels and sheets in the laundry during down times and worrying that the dude who kept coming to the fourth floor, which allows smoking, would trip another fire alarm because he was smoking something besides cigarettes, I'm out. Long story not worth telling, but the scheduling guy quit when I took a week off to go to Chicago in February. When I returned, I noticed I was not on the following week's work schedule. Nor the following week. I had been forgotten, but I saw it as divine intervention in a way and I didn't question why I was left off. I didn't like the job, it paid horribly and the hotel, I presumed, was always on the verge of being shut down for some crisis or another.

But I'm not lamenting the loss of my part-time job in an unstable profession because I finally obtained a full-time job in yet another unstable profession. Yes, I am back in the newspaper business. After I was laid off in October by the newspaper where I had toiled alone as a bureau reporter for nearly 20 years, I was picked up by the daily paper in the town in which I live. I was out of news for four months and two days, but I stumbled my way back in, poised with my reporter pad in hand and an inquisitive "How do you feel?" question a-ready. In a sense, I am working for the paper I competed with for two decades. Talk about odd allegiances.

This time I sit in a newsroom with other reporters and I cover a local beat, rather than the entire quarter of the state. It'll take some adaptation; since there are fewer reporters at this paper, we are expected to crank out more dailies on a quicker pace. There's really not much time to develop a story. We just write. I am truly shovelin' words at the News Factory this time.

And I also work as a part-time security guard during 12-hour shifts on weekends at a local retirement apartment complex. It's mind-numbing work. For the most part, I sit at a desk and answer phones, read books and try to find magazines on line that take freelance writing. But occasionally it gets busy. I've had to help a few residents after they've fallen and I've summoned paramadics a time or two when things really got serious. It is a rewarding job helping older folks.

So, I work seven days a week, trying to carve out some semblance of financial stability for Holly and I. I have no more weekends, I have to mow the yard quickly in the evenings, hoping I have enough stamina to beat the fading sun. And I can't just drop things and haul off to Chicago like I used to love doing.

But it's a job. Actually, it's two jobs.

Despite the 65 hours a week at work, though, I'm finding I do have some time remaining in the days for the continuing APBA replay of the 1991 season I began in 2015. In August, it'll be three years since I began rolling this replay. There's been a lot of life changes since I began, and I've written of that here before. Whenever you start a replay, you know things will cross your life during the replay's duration. This one has been the most eventful I've done in the 20 years of rolling games: Meeting the love of my life, traveling to Chicagoland now 23 times and back, getting a new car, losing a job, struggling, dealing with health problems, shutting off the cable and internet to save bucks and fearing money issues have all been part of this replay.

The other night, though, all that was put aside and I rolled several games in a row. Minnesota beat Detroit and the Twins continue their lead in the American League West. Boston clubbed Texas and Oakland out-homered Cleveland (Canseco was on pace to hit 61 homers for the As, but has cooled off lately). The Cubs swept Houston in a three-game series and St. Louis is getting closer to National League East leader Pittsburgh after going on a winning streak. The problems, while still lurking around the corner, waiting for me to face them head on again, were at least secondary during the game play. It was a moment of peaceful bliss.

I get home earlier at my new newspaper job, so there's more time in the evenings. I'm also learning again to sleep for only 4 to 5 hours a night, so that frees up time for an extra late night game or two.

Life changes, but the APBA game stays the same. It's really one of the main reasons we play this game.