3yardsandacloud
Administrator Emeritus
The Old Man
God, I miss the old man. Especially Saturdays in the fall. Especially this particular Saturday. I’ve been thinking of him a lot lately. Nostalgia I guess. Watching him pace like a caged animal, waiting, waiting, barely able to contain the energy. Cheering on his “boys” during the good, grumbling, then pushing them to do better during the bad. Seems like just yesterday and yet …
I grew up during the Ten Year War. Watching him, listening to him, hanging on his every action and reaction. I learned to love the Buckeyes back then. His passion and drive, the attention to detail and the desire to always be your best. I learned many things I would take with me though my life. Too many things to list here. At times I thought maybe he was crazy. Man, he could push so hard … and yet, he was such a humble and caring man. The first person there to lend a hand to friends and strangers alike.
My mind drifts back to simpler days with The Old Man. Crisp autumn afternoons listening to the Buckeyes on the radio, for not often were the games on TV. And to be sure, exciting times getting to be with The Old Man at The Horseshoe. I’ll never forget the day he was laid to rest … Some times I turn on the radio and listen to the game. Hoping that I may catch a fleeting glimpse of those days.
Little did I realize that football would never be the same for me without The Old Man. You see, The Old Man is my father … and he passed away this year.
As the years passed, I didn’t get to spend as many football Saturdays with my father as I would have liked. I have my own family and the time just wasn’t always there. To be sure, when we were together, the talk would always turn to the Buckeyes. No matter the trials or tribulations in our lives, always that connection …
God, what I wouldn’t give for one more Saturday, this Saturday, with The Old Man.
Full Circle
(the following is part of a post I made years ago in the “Sound Off thread”. It touches on many things, but mostly on a day long ago with my father at the Shoe)
I realize now that going to a game at the Shoe is a portal in time to various stages in life. The tears that day reflect my father as a child attending games with his dad. They reflect the times he was tailgating and making new friends around Ohio Stadium. They reflect his years at Ohio State, the classes, the friends, the teachers, the good memories and the bad. They reflect the people you meet across the state, the nation and indeed the globe who share the common bond of Ohio State. They reflect the joy a father has of just spending an afternoon with his child, away from the stresses of everyday life. I know this to be true. I have now lived those stages in life and realize the truth in what I've said when my eyes well up with tears during "Carmen Ohio". In fact I realize the truth as my eyes well up right now. I now have a young son who I love to share Saturday afternoons with. In a few years I'll be thrilled to share some games with him at the Horseshoe ... as many as possible. In a few years I will have come full circle. I will realize the final truth of my fathers tears ... his father had passed away and wasn't there to share games with his son and grandson.
I have come full circle … God, I miss the old man.
“And in the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love hears the rustle of a wing.”
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