Mom and The Mick!

My dear brother, Charles, sent me an email for GG this morning. He attached this picture of none other than the great Mickey Mantle. For you baseball buffs, you might recognize this as his rookie card. Wouldn't you love to have your hands on such a treasure? For sure. As would my big brother.

Actually, Mickey was part of our lives back in the 60s. He was right there in the house with us. Imagine. He hung out with Charles on a regular basis. Charles humbly enjoyed showing him off to friends and family. And Mickey always acquiesced to the call, no matter the time or day. Amazing man, that guy. Well, at least in his younger years. He traveled with us near and far, no matter where we went. He even ended up moving with us after Daddy passed away. What a guy, I'm telling you. And he was consistent, never shifting from his position. Wow.

Then the tragedy came and Charles has never been the same since. Mickey left our lives forever. I know Charles probably should have had some kind of grief therapy for such a loss, but we just didn't know about those types of help back then.

The demise all started when Charles left for seminary in TX leaving Mic with us in Va.. Big mistake. Mickey didn't like that even though he had two lovely women taking care of him, or so Charles thought. I plead the fifth. Anyway, I was soooo young, what did I know about upcoming starts in baseball? And what about Mom? You'd have to ask her, but maybe you better not. I will attest that Mickey did try and tough it out. He was as always consistently quiet and still. What a guy. Did I say that before?

Then came ministry, marriage, and kiddos for Charles. Of course, Mickey no longer had a lot of any one's attention. He just sat there all by himself, well, sort of.

And I can't swear to when, but somewhere along the way, maybe in the 70s, Mickey found himself taken out of his comfortable resting place in our home. His new residence? Some prestigious place you might think considering how well he had done in the baseball industry. Nope. He was kicked to the curb without a thought. In the garbage. Yes, I said his new residence was in the garbage can out by the curb. And that dreaded fateful day he left never more to return.

Don't look at me, I didn't do it. OK, so I will confess what I know. Mom is not the heroine in this story. Sorry folks. She's human. Mom without thought just trashed the poor guy. I guess she had enough of him hanging around all those years. And if you know Mom, she doesn't let things sit idly by. If they do not have some purposeful use, their time is at hand. His # came up that cloudy day, and she went on her sunny way. At least for a time. UNTIL, big bro came home one day and happened to be looking for Mick. It ain't happenin' Bro' (pardon the slang), I thought. Mick was kicked to the curb, by yo mama.

He will have to speak for himself on what he must have felt that very moment and for some time to come (try 30 years or so). I can only imagine what she stripped that boy from by taking his prized possession from him. And without permission, no less. Not good.

To top it off, she was just gleefully glad she had spared her prized possession of Charles'; his gum wrapper chain (say, do you still have that, Bro???). You know those long chains that we used to make with gum wrappers? Maybe you are not that old. Anyway, his was different, I mean it was a sight to behold and much for a mama to be proud of. Really. It had to have been 1000's of feet long. Well, it seemed so to me. But you have to wonder, what woman in her right mind would kick Mick to the curb and keep an artsy gum-wrapper chain? A no-nonsense woman. And that would be my mama.

Has she lived to regret it? "I suppose.", she says as she giggles. And even Charles will tell you when she giggles like that it's really hard to stay angry at her. Notice I did say "stay".

When I showed her Mick's card, she immediately recognized him and said, "Well, yeah, that's Mickey Mantle." I told her Charles sent the pic and wanted to know if she knew where that $52,000 card was? An odd look danced across that pretty little morning face of hers, and she replied, "Well, I just thought it was an old box of cards that was no good. And, too, now that I'm thinking about it, he had no business leaving Mickey there with me anyway."

So my brother owes it to his little mama that he's not a wealthy man today. But she would say that wealth does not a man make. Sorry Bro! What do you think the gum-wrapper chain might bring you? You might want to check on E-bay.