Day 101, Year 8: Day in Bonita Springs
Date: Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Weather: Sunny with High in the Mid 80’s F
Location: Home of Mary Ellen and Lee French, Bonita Springs, Florida
Today we spent a relaxed day here in Bonita Springs. Mark headed off early with Lee to a softball game.Lee plays for the Collier County Senior Softball Association. He plays all year, but January, February, and March is the competitive season. So today was a game and Mark really enjoyed watching.The players are 50 years and above, mostly 60 and above, and Lee thinks he is probably the oldest person on the team.Lee also plays on a traveling team where all the players are 70 and above. Just can’t believe these guys are still playing ball, but they really enjoy it.While Mark and Lee were on the ball field, Mary Ellen and Jeanie, both of Mark’s sisters, and I went luncheon fashion show hosted by St. Leo’s Catholic Church. There were about 350 women there and I think an enjoyable time was had by all.When we got home, Mark and I took a long walk and came home to have a swim in Lee and ME’s pool.Mark and I realized that we probably haven’t been in a swimming pool since we were at Rebak Marina in Malaysia.So we’ll hope to get in some more pool time tomorrow. It felt so good.Then tonight we went out to dinner with family which included Lee and ME, Mark’s sister Jeanie and her partner Tom, and Lee and ME’s son Danny and his partner Linda. It is just so nice to be able to spend time together.
I’ll end tonight’s log with a little reflection on the past. After sending the log last night, Mark and Lee were sitting around and started talking about their early years in Mattoon, Illinois where they both grew up. It was interesting to hear them talking about how much easier life seemed back then. Quickly the discussion went on to talk about listening to shows on the radio.There was no TV when they were very young. I am just enough younger to be a television baby, but many of the radio programs were also on TV in the early days—Our Miss Brooks, The Green Door, Sky King, The Inner Sanctum, The Lone Ranger, The Phantom, and on and on. Then they talked about going to the movies.Evidently Mattoon had four theaters back then.There was the Rickey, the Mattoon, the Time, and the Clark. When Mark was in grade school, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans came to the Rickey one Saturday morning to introduce one of their movies and it only cost nine cents to get in—and this was for a double feature and cartoons. Mark says it was a great way for parents to get rid of their kids! The conversation went on and Mark talked about watching the screen collapse at the Mattoon Skyway Drive-in Theater when a tornado ripped through one night when he was a teenager. The Drive-in opened in 1947 and that prompted Lee to mention Gill’s Drive Inn that opened in 1949 and is still open today. As I write this log tonight, Mark and Lee are reminiscing once again. I sure wish I had a good tape recorder to capture these discussions.
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| 130212 Day 101 Florida Visit 2013–Day in Bonita Springs |
