It's a Small World & I Don't Speak Chinese

     So, I went to a baseball game in Denver the other day where I met a man from Los Angeles traveling back from New York who grew up in College Station, Texas and knew/knows someone from Snyder, America. That's a small world.

   

Coors Field/Denver

     The genesis of this blog all began with a trip to Denver to pick-up Teresa who was visiting her daughter, Ashton's family in The Mile High City.  I arrived on Thursday and within hours was sitting behind third base at The Rockies game versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.
     To say I don't like to visit is both true and false. I do NOT like to visit when I'm in town, but when I go out of town I'm a "Chatty Kathy" and that's how I met my latest Los Angeles to Snyder connection.

Matt & Brad/NYC to LA via Denver

     I love baseball. I love to play it, that is. I don't follow the game. I never have. So, I had no idea if either The Rockies or The Dodgers were any good this year.
     That's when I turned to the guy at my right, Matt (in gray) and asked.... "Hey, are The Rockies any good this year?"
     "I dunno. I'm just traveling through."
     At this point, my "Chatty Kathy" radar ramped up.
     "Oh yeah? Where ya from?"
     "Los Angeles, but I'm traveling from New York."
     "Oh. I didn't expect to hear that sentence," I told him in complete honesty.
      At this point, Matt kind of watched the game. I kind of watched the game. But, I think he knew that I was loaded for bear with more questions.
      "Okay, New York to LA, how, what route, where'd you come from, where ya going, when do you expect to get out there?" Bam! Bam! Bam! The poor guy didn't stand a chance.
      "I took my brother back to New York, pick-up my friend (Brad) and now we're headed back. I have family here and they had these tickets," Matt answered all the questions I think he could remember.
       "Cool," is all I could muster. So, I took a "Chatty Kathy breather.

Fun with Avery/Coors Field

      The game pressed on. Our granddaughter Avery clamored across the aisle to our seats. We took a picture, pointed at the players while she played "Don't Blink" with the little boy behind us and watched the young girl in front of us read her book during the game.

Reading Girls @ The Ballpark

     But it didn't take long before Matt and I began more unnecessary small talk and that's when the "small world" lightbulb exploded.

     "Where are y'all from," Matt asked which kind of surprised me because he said "y'all," not you guys or anything less southern than "y'all."

     "We're from west Texas," I told him.
     "Really?! Where?" He asked with a lot more enthusiasm than I expected.
      "Out by Lubbock & Midland." I said. "It's a little town called Snyder. It's just usually easier to tell people Lubbock though," Teresa added.
      "I know Snyder. I grew up in College Station. I have a friend from Snyder," Matt told us.
      "No way!"
      "Yeah."
      "Who's your friend? Teresa knows everybody!"
      "Her married name is Candace Suderfield."
      Believe it or not, Teresa does NOT know Candace Suderfield. But we still had a great time playing "Chatty Kathy." And as usual, we were both surprised by the results.

     Sometimes, it's as much fun to just listen in my "Chatty Kathy" game and that proved true over breakfast one morning at a fun, funky place in Denver's Tech Center called The Urban Egg.

The Urban Egg/Denver Tech Center

      Breakfast was great. I had the Southwest Benedict. That is poached eggs over a tamale and chorizo topped with hollandaise. But the real story comes from our waiter who immediately noticed my son-in-law's tattoos. Besides the multitude of colorful designs, his "ink" includes many sayings in foreign languages and the unfamiliar verbiage is what caught our waiter's eye.

      "Is that Chinese," she asked Bobby.

      "What?"

      "Your tattoo. Is that Chinese?"

      "Oh. No. It's Mandarin," he explained.

      "Okay. I'm going to China next week. I'm kinda freakin' out."       

      At this point, I listened all I could. "Why are you going to China?"

      "To teach English," she said.

      "So, I'm guessing if you're going to China to teach English then you must speak Chinese because...."

       "No, I don't speak Chinese."

       "Oh, that should be quite an experience. Good luck." Sometimes my "Chatty Kathy" game can leave me a little flummoxed. We all decided that our waiter will have an interpreter. But now that I think about it, if she has an interpreter, doesn't that mean that person speaks both Chinese and English? 

Ashton & Avery/Denver

    Baseball was fun. Breakfast was a hoot. But the real fun is always spending time with Carson and Avery. He's 10 years old. She's four. They just moved to Denver and until school starts they're all about the neighborhood pool.

     I'm 56-years-old and still I'll never forget my days as a lil' boy swimming with my best friend Teddy Liljenwall in their family pool. I think we spent more hours in the water than we did doing anything else unless it was playing "imaginary man" baseball with Lee Keough or ARMY with our other neighbor Clay Ritchie. Now, it's Avery and Carson's time to get those wrinkled finger tips and toes and smell of chlorine.

Carson/Denver

     I don't know what it is about swimming, especially when you're a little kid, but it's somehow a complete "fun" that as I remember it doesn't come with all the other great things when you're young.

     Think about it... All you gotta do is run (if the lifeguard doesn't stop you,) jump, dive and repeat. It was a lot of fun.

     Good times, great memories and a whole lotta fun in Denver.

Bill Robertson.