Maple

my daddy and i at the game

It's amazing what one peanut can do.

For reals. I saw a box of peanuts on the counter today and I had one. I chewed it really, really, really fast so that I could make 'homemade' peanut butter and it reminded me of... Dodger Games.
There is something magical about the Dodger stadium. It has the power to make you have fun no matter what.

My first game was when I was about seven years old. We always went to them with my Dad. It was a daddy-daughter date. I am the youngest in my family and so I was the last one to experience the joy. However, when my time came, I was prepared. My sisters had told me all the details and I was prepared for the best night of my life. We drove to LA, going under many tunnels and turning blue at the same time. Breathing in tunnels was simply not aloud. As we got closer to the stadium, the traffic increased which game me time to look out the car windows at all the tall buildings... and gray sky. Yes. I am talking about pollution. But I didn't know what it was at the time and so it didn't bother me in the slightest. As we got even closer to the stadium, there were several people standing on the side of the road with signs that said, 'HAVE TICKETS' or 'NEED TICKETS'. We always passed them because we HAD two tickets and that's all we NEEDed.

We drove all the way up to to the gates where they would check our tickets and then we parked. We then crossed the road after looking left, right, left and got into the stadium. As soon as you entered you smelt smoke. The smoking area was right there. This was, once again another chance for me to turn blue. Finally when you got out of range from that, you smelt beer. This is still a familiar smell to me today. Not because, we have beer in the house, or any outrageous thing like that, but because of these games. It smells sweet and thick. In a slightly twisted way, it is a comfort smell. Once we found our section we went down the twenty or so steps and got situated. We were mid right field, about 10-15 rows back. They were great seats. At first, I did not have a clue what was going on but as time went by, I began to feel that I could live like this every day.
My favorite part of the entire game were the people who came down the aisles yelling, 'LEMONADE' or 'COTTON CANDY' or 'NACHOS... GET YOUR NACHOS!' as well as mini-pizzas, and of course, peanuts. By the end of my first game, I believe I had three Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, a few nacho chips stolen from my Dad, at least one bag of candy and half a bag of peanuts. Now that I think about it, what is SO cool is that if you are not at the end of the row, you just yell and hand the money down from person to person and you get thrown the food. Talk about trust.
Another highlight was always the beach balls that would come around. I loved that! Hitting it was the best. It was great fun to keep them away from the ushers. Poor ushers... They had a hard job! They got booed many times for apprehending the beach ball and sometimes, if you ran away fast enough, (or else you would be thrown out of the game!) a daring soul would knock it out of their hands and start the game again. Once, a huge Shamoo type beach ball was started and it landed on the field. The game had to be paused for a few minutes. And who can forget the wave? My record was 7 times around the ENTIRE stadium. Wahoo!
Catching balls was also exciting! There was one time when the fly ball came over to the row RIGHT behind us. I looked back on the ground and there was no one there. I could have grabbed it but my reflexes were MUCH to slow. So before I knew it, people were grabbing and poking and trying to get the blessed ball. I just watched. Poor Daddy. I could tell he was sad that we didn't get it. I felt very bad. If only I had reached down soon enough. A little while later, the man who ended up getting the ball came over to our row and put it in my sisters hand (this time was a family affair) and said, "Maybe if you have the ball it will bring the Dodgers more luck." Yes, my beloved team was loosing- but that didn't matter. The kind man had given it to us. We were so happy! That kind man made my day, he made my memory. Thank you kind sir.

THE ball

So basically, these memories of laughing, winning and loosing flooded to me in a mere few mili-seconds and I ask you, what would I do with those seconds if I didn't have those dear thoughts?

thank you daddy. for helping create some of your daughters favorite memories.