Friday Smiles 288: Visiting the Lawrence-Dumont baseball stadium

I'll begin with a few funnies, then take you across town.

A man runs into the vet’s office carrying his dog, screaming for help. The vet rushes him back to an examination room and has him put his dog down on the examination table. The vet examines the still, limp body and after a few moments, tells the man that his dog, regrettably, is dead. The man, clearly agitated and not willing to accept this, demands a second opinion.

The vet goes into the back room and comes out with a cat and puts the cat down next to the dog’s body. The cat sniffs the body, walks from head to tail, poking and sniffing the dog’s body and finally looks at the vet and meows.

The vet looks at the man and says, “I’m sorry, but the cat thinks that your dog is dead, too.” The man is still unwilling to accept that his dog is dead. So the vet brings in a black Labrador retriever. The lab sniffs the body, walks from head to tail, and finally looks at the vet and barks. The vet looks at the man and says, “I’m sorry, but the lab thinks your dog is dead too.”

The man, finally resigned to the diagnosis, thanks the vet and asks how much he owes. The vet answers, “$650.”

“$650 to tell me my dog is dead?” exclaims the man.

“Well,” the vet replies, “I would only have charged you $50 for my initial diagnosis. The additional $600 was for the cat scan and lab tests.

–The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

–The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.

–The Washington Post is read by people who think they ought to run the country.

–USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t understand The Washington Post.

–The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they could spare the time.

–The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

–The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country.

–The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who’s running the country, as long as they do something scandalous.

–The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure there is a country, or that a country is a good idea in the first place.

–The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country.

–The Chicago Tribune is read by people who live in the Midwest, which readers of the other newspapers don’t think is part of the country.

(The above may be too U.S. oriented for my international friends.  In fact, it may be too obscure for me, too.) 

A visiting Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours!"

"If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either."

~Dick Cavett

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand!

A synonym is a word you use if you can't spell the other one.

I realize I said we would visit the art museum upon my return from hiatus, but I still have not gone through the over 1400 photos I took the day I took the two teens and one tween to the museum.  Instead, we will visit Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.  It will soon be obvious this photo was taken at a much different time than the ones I'm about to share.

The photos I took before

are definitely underwhelming.

At least you get a sense of the size of the stadium.

Fast forward to July of this year

and the youngsters wanted to see the stadium one last time before it is demolished.

For those of you who don't know the back story, these children are the product of a divorce that turned ugly when my now deceased friend's husband asked for a divorce right before Christmas two years ago.  He wanted to be with a younger, healthy lady, so in order for him to get the quickie divorce he wanted, he gave up all parental rights to the children.   At the time of her death, I wasn't sure if he thought he would be granted custody of the children once his sick wife died (of breast cancer), but she made sure that didn't happen, and right before she died, turned over parental rights to her sister who lives in California. 

As the children got closer to the stadium, I learned the sad truth to this tale.   The eldest explained that when their dad moved out, he told them he would not see them ever again and that he was starting a new life and a new family.  A new "family" might be the reason for the quickie divorce.

Like my dear departed friend, I also agreed to never say anything bad about the children's father.   It seems that was not the case for the oldest, who remembered all too well

coming to this stadium with the father.  This child was trying to relive a moment and hope for closure at the same time.

I was more worried about the scary clouds and catching one of the children in a photo.

I hadn't intended to get this man in a wheelchair walking his dog, in a photo, but you can't really see his face.  The kids were enamored by the dog, shared remembrances with the man about the stadium, and ended up crying and laughing in the end.

This may not seem like a smile this Friday, but I assure you, the children felt a LOT better as we left the stadium that had held fond memories of them with their father.  And that should put a smile on ANYONE'S face.

As an aside, Lawrence-Dumont Stadium will be torn down within a year.  The new stadium will cost 73 MILLION U.S. Dollars.  The cost will be supported by our sales tax, already the highest in the state.   The Wingnuts played their last game in the stadium on Labor Day.  The city hopes to have construction of the new stadium completed by 2020.

For those of you who live in the U.S.,
it's time to get your free Museum Day ticket for two people.  This annual event is sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine.  I've gone the past four years and intend to take advantage of this year, too.

Thanks for joining me today and thanks for your continued visits and support.  Now let's visit Annie's Friday Smiles, where it never hurts to begin the weekend with a big smile, just like Annie's. Feel free to join in with a post of your own, too.  I know she will welcome you with a big smile, just like she did me several years ago.