On The Fly

In this episode - Family Stories . . . When you travel, you will frequently meet new people, and the conversation may lead to the question, "Where are you from?” “Cuba,” - then I wait for their expected response. “Havana?” They ask. “Nope, Havana is about 19 miles from Cuba on the Illinois River.” “Cuba, Illinois.” Hah, ha! People furrow their brows, squint their eyes, then smile as they finally get the joke. This always elicits a chuckle and sets a friendly, humorous tone for the conversation. What reminded me of this, you ask? When handed the microphone, this was my running joke at the annual Ball Family Reunion on Saturday, August 12, 2023, hosted by my aunt Deanna Ball in Fairview, Illinois. I’ll admit this was probably the first reunion I’ve attended in about 50 years. Followers of my blog may know that my father's side of the family had nine children: Lawrence and Helen Ball's kids, who lived in rural Canton, Illinois. As each sibling married, they had, on average, ...

In this episode – A Catch With Dad . . . On Thursday, August 12, 2021, Field of Dreams came to life for so many devoted fans of that movie and baseball. Major League Baseball hosted a mid-summer game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox in Dyersville, Iowa, for the first time in its history. The central theme of that movie hinged on father and son bonding – “having a catch.” This reminded me of a story I wrote in 2012 about my Dad. This week would have been Dad's 89 th birthday; he’s been gone for eight years. My fondest baseball memories were not spring training or visiting a major league ballpark; it was not meeting a famous ballplayer. For me, it was learning to catch  lighting ; and field line drives with my Dad. Major League Baseball was always background noise from an old transistor radio tuned to 720  WGN  Chicago as a youngster. Devoted fans chewed over the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in Cuba, Illinois. For our family, baseball wa...

We were 12 years old at the time in sixth grade, pranksters.  My good friends Perry Marlette, Nathan Robertson, and I were the adolescent boys who “terrorized" the town of Cuba, Illinois with pranks that drove our local cop batty. After our adventures we would retreat back to Perry’s house and his mother would refuel us with Hostess Twinkies and 7up. I guess you had to grow up in the 1960s to realize that snacks weren’t always healthy fresh fruits, and whole grain products. Of course, we devoured crackers and cheese, nuts, and a variety of munchies but what sticks in my mind was the sugar rush from Twinkies and 7up. Maybe it’s because it was not something my mother would buy for our family. It was a luxury! I can hear you asking, “What in the world reminded you of this?”  Our high school class of 1974 has a Facebook page with 46 members. It’s a closed group that friends only seem to post when someone from our graduating class dies. In our small town we came to k...

What Doc Burch Taught Me About Staying Active. We talk a lot about "life hacks" these days, but most of them don’t have a very long shelf life. Usually, they’re forgotten by the next app update. But back in 1972, I received a piece of advice that came with a 50-year warranty. It’s the reason I’m still on my bike today, still chasing a golf ball around Carlsbad, and still—mostly—in one piece. The Kick That Changed Everything It started with a literal kick in the pants. A kid at school in Cuba, Illinois, was joking around and caught me just right. By the next morning, my lower back was screaming. My mom didn’t reach for the Tylenol; she reached for her car keys. "Let’s go see Doc Burch," she said. "He’ll fix you right up." Harry E. Burch, D.C., was a fixture in Lewistown. He’d graduated from Palmer College in ’59 and had been our family’s go-to for years. He was a man of practiced hands and steady eyes. After a quick exam and an X-ray, the mood in the room s...