Dave Brigham's Blog, page 18

Well, I Almost Got On the Field

I reported yesterday that I'd be stepping onto the Fenway Park diamond before today's Sox game, but alas only Owen and Beth got that opportunity (see August 15, 2011, "Chance of a Lifetime").



I hung out with Amelia while the two of them were on the field for a pre-game ceremony involving Beth's company. It was Amelia's first time at Fenway, which she enjoyed, especially the chocolate ice cream.







Owen had fun hanging with a few other kids while Beth did her corporate duty. He even got to...

Chance of a Lifetime

Tomorrow, August 16, marks the the second time that I will set foot on the field at Fenway Park. The first time was in October 2002, during the Emerald Necklace Half Marathon. That was the first half marathon I ran, and certainly the most memorable. The race starts near Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and continues near Fenway. Because the Red Sox weren't in the playoffs that year, the course ran down Lansdowne Street, under Fenway's center field bleachers, and onto the warning track. We then ...

Put Me In, Coach

(I love this picture. This is Owen's fall 2010 team, which I didn't coach, but which I enjoyed watching immensely.)



I love baseball. I loved playing as a kid and a teenager. I loved playing as a grown-up, from age 40 to 44. I love watching the Red Sox. I mourn baseball during the winter.



But I'm conflicted about coaching. In the first draft of this post (yes, I'm a journalist at heart), I went on about how coaching Owen's team this summer has been a bit of a pain in the ass. Then I read ...

Sucked Back In

After a few years away, I've been sucked back into the vortex of black ops, government conspiracies, and UFO's.

My fascination started when I was a kid, looking through my parents' copy of "Chariots of the Gods," which asks questions such as, "Did astronauts visit the Earth 40,000 years ago?" and "Did extraterrestrial beings help set up the giant stone faces that brood over Easter Island?"

I don't remember the answers, or frankly reading that much of it, but the pictures were cool and made me t...

You Ain't B.A.D., You Ain't Nuthin'

Please forgive the title's reference to Weird "Al" Yankovic's "Fat," a parody of Michael Jackson's "Bad." But that video just cracks me up.

Anyway, I went to see Big Audio Dynamite last night at Boston's House of Blues (which is a much different place than the original, Cambridge-based HOB, but let's save that discussion for another time) with my friends Jim and Ken. We ran into my buddy Jay, and we all had a good time. We laughed, we ate, we drank beer (except Ken) and we danced a bit.

I found...

Kid Stuff

In November 2009, I was struck with the idea of writing a children's book. My son, Owen, loves subway trains, especially Boston's MBTA system. In trying to find Christmas gifts that year that related to subway trains, I didn't find much other than a few books that were below his reading level. I figured I'd try my hand at writing a children's book or two about subways.

I started out simple, with a rhyming alphabet book for preschoolers. I shopped it around to literary agencies, but got little ...

I Love a Parade...and a Carnival

Each summer growing up, I looked forward to the annual Simsbury Volunteer Fire Company's carnival the way a drunk joneses for his next bottle of booze. The carnival was held the same week in July. The festivities opened on a Wednesday (or maybe Thursday) and went through the weekend, with a parade on Saturday night. I got almost as excited for the parade, with its scores of area fire departments, marching bands, trucks, police cars, clowns throwing candy, etc., as I did for the rides and game...

Vacation

We spent a week on Cape Cod earlier this month, as we've done for the last nine years. We rent the same house with Beth's parents, her sister and brother-in-law and their son, Max. We had a good time going to a nearby beach, riding on the Cape Cod Central Railroad, visiting the Heritage Museum and Gardens, eating fried food, watching the MLB All-Star Game, going for walks by the salt marsh and riding go-cars and bumper boats. Oh yeah, and drinking beer, margaritas and Old Grand-Dad.

One thing ...

Where I'm From

This is the house where I grew up, in Weatogue, Connecticut:



This place was the center of my universe for the first half of my life, until I was 23. I grew up there with my older siblings, Steve and Beth, my parents, Dick and Joan, and our dog, Lucky. Here, I learned the value of education (my parents were both teachers); the passion of being a Red Sox fan; the wonder of playing a musical instrument (my mom played piano; I played clarinet first, then took up the guitar); the importance of trea...

Heredity

("Big Alex," Felton Street in Waltham, MA)


I was reminded during a recent visit with my sister how much I loved big rigs when I was young. She's five years older than I am, and told me that to this day she remembers the difference between a cabover and a conventional truck tractor because of how obsessed I was with spotting 18-wheelers.

Previously, I hadn't thought about how similar my one-time appreciation for big trucks is to my 9-year-old son Owen's current love of subway trains. I used to r...