4:41_______________
So says my digital clock on my computer desk...what the Hell? Here I sit, Anissa is awake. Our daughter is an early riser due partly to the meds she takes for her various disabilities. She usually gets up at the 4 O'Clock hour, give or take 30 minutes. This morning it was me up early...actually since about an hour ago when 2 neighborhood "Tom Cats" were across the street doing a prolonged battle. After listening to these sonsofbitches go at it for 15 minutes, I donned the PJs, grabbed the baseball bat and walked across the street. Now these 2 didn't give a crap about this old man until I reached them, bat in hand, and took a swing....they hauled ass into the back yard of another neighbor, and continued their go around....should have grabbed the .22 and dispatched both of the miserable creatures....but why bring panic to the neighborhood, or the cops?
Well anyway, that woke up the dog, Anissa, and me.... Getting to bed at 12:15, rounds out to just a little over 3 hours sleep....once up, this old dog can't get back to bed, so it's a pot of coffee, and listening to the friendly nutjobs on George Norrey's "Coast to Coast" on XM Channel 165. Time Travel is this morning's show...."Beam me up Scotty"!
Without a doubt, the past few days have been pretty boring in this "Day in the Life"....but yesterday got more interesting.
-------------------------------------THE GAME FROM HELL!
Or at least the final 3 minutes from Hell....I traveled north about 35 miles yesterday, filling in at a junior high football game for another official. Since this takes me up to the area of my early youth, I go up there on occasion during baseball season. It gets me back to my roots so to speak. Anyway working a 3 man officiating crew with 2 veterans seemed harmless enough....and it was for the first 3 quarters and the first 5(8 minute quarters in junior high ball) of the final period. Then it got interesting:
{so as not to insult most of the fans who didn't act like rabid assholes, the names of both teams will remain ___________}
Game tied at 6 with 3 minutes left, when the visitors gained control of the ball on a fumble at their own 15 yard line...as the home team fumbled, and the ball was scooped up by the defense, I heard a whistle behind me. Knowing from my view, which was the clearest, I let the play go....the defensive player takes the ball back about 35 yards...which would have set them up in good field position. However, with the inadvertent whistle, the play was killed....I informed the Referee that the whistle I heard(blown by him) was post-possession(after the fumble and recovery). Now, this situation was not going to make either team happy, but it was the only "fair" and correct thing to do. We take the ball back to the A____________'s 15 and give them the ball.
A________ runs 2 plays and the clock continues to move, score of 6-6, I think to myself, well we are in for a tie game, no overtime in junior high, unless the coaches and officials agree beforehand...we hadn't. It only gets better!
On 3rd down, A_________,s quarterback tosses a floater down the middle. Intercepted by W________T________, run by to the A__________ 25...I look at the clock, 1 minute 11 seconds remain. So the home team, with no time outs left, and the score knotted at 6, has the ball deep in enemy territory. Long Story longer....the clock runs down to 19 seconds the home team QB launches one over the middle, one of the wide receivers grabs it....falls forward and is down at the 1 yard line. No time outs left, I set the ball, being the Head Lineman, I set the chain crew's marker in place and the Ref winds the clock....all Hell was breaking loose on the sidelines....in a 3 man crew, you can't see all, and who knows whether we may have missed a W_______T________ player run off late. Was there 12 men in the huddle( a 5 yard penalty)? I don't think so, but the visitor's fans were raising Hell in a big way....the home team sets the ball, a quick snap and a push forward....the line judge on the other side signals "Touchdown"....I glance at the clock...it shows 0.1{as in zero point one/one tenth of a second} left in the game. The extra point failed. Time for one more quick play(no kickoffs in JH ball in Ohio)...the game ends with the home team on top 12-6.
We head off the field to the parking lot past the visitors side of the grand stand. To this schools credit they travel well, and actually had more than the home team in number of fans. Many were not happy with this aging crew...I have to say at 59 1/2 I was the youngest member of the men in stripes....Hell we caught, F-Bombs, threats, and other entertaining comments were thrown our way. We walked to our vehicles.
As I went to pull out, a pick-up truck, gunned up next to my Intrepid..the driver, some hayseed about my age, began swearing and waving his hand at me like some idiot....I pulled behind him as we left the parking lot. He was turning right, then would go south on US 127....so just on a whim, I decided to pull up next to him and go left towards the back roads....his driver side window was down and as I pulled up beside, he continued his tirade....cussing, pointing, and telling me about our officiating crew and his thoughts on our ability. I smiled, waved, and mouthed a polite F____ Off in his direction. End of discussion, he "saluted" me one last time and pulled away...I turned left towards the back roads of Blue Creek Township.
In my years of officiating baseball and football, this was as ugly as I've seen...coming at the junior high level, these "fans" put another whole meaning to the word fanatics. The home crowd was well behaved and to be fair, so was the large majority of the visiting fans, except a few, who acted the part of fools...making this writing possible.
The Road Back Home
_______________
Taking the back roads the 40 miles(5 miles longer this way) to Celina, I head deep into Blue Creek Township...Blue Creek was the home of family members from 1870 until my aunt died in 1998. My Great Grandfather, Nelson Houseworth, had moved his family from Waldo, Ohio, after the Civil War...see story at my genealogy blog:
http://israelhouseworth.blogspot.com/
After the intense ending of the game, I decided to pay the graves of Nelson, and my dad a visit.....Graveyards are a place you must visit if you are doing serious genealogy work, and I've visited
many of them...reading stones, to gather bits of information of family members past. Now don't get me wrong, I don't talk to the stones as if those dead folks are still there...they aren't. Those souls are either in Heaven, Hell, or somewhere in between....there is however a surreal feel to cemeteries, especially those like Blue Creek, which are located in desolate spots in rural America.Nelson S. Houseworth is buried in the old section of Blue Creek Cemetery, and as you can see by the photos, his stoned, marked with his Civil War unit, is pretty much at the southwest corner, by itself, near a dry creek bed. Blue Creek is dry this summer, due to the lack of rain the past couple of months.
After taking some photos, I headed south 4 miles, to just inside the Van Wert-Paulding County line...the cemetery is the Town of Scott Cemetery, which is the resting place of the bones of many other Houseworth family members, including my dad, his mom, both sisters, and the oldest brother...plenty of cousins "reside" there as well. The Old Man's stone is located in a non crowded spot at the southeast edge of the cemetery.....snapped a shot of his WW2/Veteran plate, and the stone itself, with my shadow towering above and over it. Kind of like that shot. The stone has mom's name on it as well, she is alive and well, Dad has been gone for 36 years this Christmas Eve.
On the Road Home
___________
The visit got me in the proper mood to head on home....the game a distant memory, and the outcome{not who won or lost) actually brought a smile to my face....I knew it would give me a chance to bounce the decisions and outcome off my fellow refs at our meeting in Van Wert tonight.
Now I know, few people read posts when they are this long, and I see I've been at it for over an hour. The clock just changed to 5:45AM......now I can have my 3rd cup of "joe", take a shower and face the day.
Back Later>>>>>>>>>>>>
photos-Cat Fight/Football Scoreboard/Nelson S Houseworth at Blue Creek Cemetery and Stan Houseworth at Scott Cemetery
5 comments:
You been on the go, haven't you?
Cat fights up here around my place are so common I just ignore them, screeches and squalling notwithstanding.
We are like peas in a pod, I have visited so many graves......
First, on the cats... Hilarious! One of my ols lady neighbors once called me, concerned. She'd spent the night listenin' to a cat fight, noo doubt two of mine, and described it in vivid detail. Said it sounded like a young girl being attacked. I wanted to say "How the fuck did you get to be this old and you don't know what a cat fight sounds like?!" Cracked me up. Bitch called animal control on me later and tried to get one of my cats killed. Hope she gets a tumor.
On the football... that was a very entertaining description. It cool to hear it all described from the standpoint of the ref. I can't imagine some asshole cussin' you like that, but I know it happens. Seen it happen. Even women, mothers of the kids on the team, comin' up with some doozies.
And I love the cemitery stuff too, most of the folks in my family that I grew up knowin' are in one somewhere around here.
Sorry I haven't been around lately. I look away and fail to keep up for just a bit and you've poosted 15 friggin' things. Jesus, take a rest!
Nice post, Pat. You're fortunate to live in such close proximity to your roots. I have no idea where my maternal or paternal grandparents are buried... and my father is buried in California, my mother in Georgia. Quite the difference.
Pat,
I have pictures of most of the family's graves (7 different graveyards). My father's parents and my mother's parents are buried in the same cemetery, with just a sidewalk between them. Sure makes it nice, when a long lost cousin wants a picture of their ancestors, and you've already got it sitting on your hard drive.
My Dad was also in WWII. He was in the Army Air Corps (co-pilot).
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