Dorothy, My Sons and Harry Chapin

Dorothy, the Kansan who had a dog named after a rock band and couldn’t decide whether she was color or black and white, said these words over and over….

“There’s no place like home…..there’s no place like home….there’s no place like home.”

I don’t have any argument with her…..but I would like to suggest that she was not so much wishing for a return to Kansas...as she was instead hoping for a return to her family.

I’m back in the Mancave which is of course in Snyder, Texas, home of the White Buffalo which by the way is dead. And while I am happy to be back in the Republic with my beloved wife, I understand Dorothy’s feelings.

My week long sojourn to Central and Southern Illinois was focused on friends and family. My mother and father are still active. My sister’s family is strong and bound to my own. My sons are all doing well…and I count many friends who inspire fond memories.

But for a moment, let me focus on my sons.

This was the first time in almost a decade that we were able to spend an entire evening together.

I sprung for tickets to the Champions Club at Busch Stadium, home of our Cardinals. A ticket buys you a seat, a run through a buffet and all the beer you can drink. The cost per ticket was $80 and I doubt the Cardinals will ever allow the Dreiths to return again. While the team won on the field….they lost at the bar.

I very comfortably refrained from alcohol intake and gladly became the designated driver for the trip. The boys did what they could to alleviate downstream flooding along the Mississippi by sucking down beer as fast as it could be drained from the river and refined at the largest brewery in the world…only a couple miles from the ballpark.

We laughed, made fun of each other in a unique Dreith way and when I dropped them off at their respective houses……I shed a tear or two that I am not more a part of their lives these days.

Life is cruel that way. You hold those babies and proclaim to the world that you will do everything in your power to provide for them. You discipline them and encourage them and then one day you are running a college in Texas and they are pursuing their dreams elsewhere. They get married and start down their own road which will someday lead them to the same reality.

This is not a Harry Chapin song…..

I don’t know if any of my three sons will someday be an influential leader or invent a widget that will save society.

I rather doubt it.

But I do know this-------They do know how to have a good time. They got that honestly from their ancestors.

I hope they know how much I love them. And how much I appreciated that weekday night when we all shared a ballgame and a beer….or two….or three.

I pray we can all do it again…..

Soon.