Tuesday’s Wandering Thoughts

Confession.

I sometimes pretend to remember things that I don’t readily recall.

Like, a friend will ask me something like, “Do you remember when Magursky hit that home run in 1968 in the Dodger game?”

Honestly, I can reply, I was twelve, I don’t remember, I wasn’t much into baseball then, and the baseball I followed was basically limited to the Pirates.

But I know my buddy will insist on trying to help me remember. “Oh, come on, don’t you remember? It was the longest home run ever! Completely out of the park. You must remember it. Wait, was it 68? Or was in ’69? Oh, come to think of it, it might have bee ’67.”

I’ve been down this path. I know how the convo will go. Meanwhile, my brain has wandered off, singing the theme song to the “Milton the Monster” cartoon.

So I fib, and I say, “Yes! Of course I remember it,” matching his enthusiasm. “Oh, I’m pretty sure it was ’68 because in ’69 is when the Mets won the World Series, wasn’t it? Remember Tom Seaver and the Miracle Mets? And that was the same year Andretti won the Indy 500, remember?”

And he’ll answer, “Yes, of course I do. Andretti. Indy. Right.”

And we’ll go on happily like that, because that’s a small part of why we’re friends.