With a Little Help From My Friend

It's tough to be Far from the Pahk this year, the 100th Birthday of Fenway. I envisioned my 60th  birthday this year to be sitting in the bleachers on June 10th watching the Sox play the Nationals. Alas, that is not to be. The weekend of June 1-3, I will be in Seattle for the Washington State Democratic Convention. The next weekend we have friends coming into town for a family member's graduation.

Then there was the movement last year to have a Class of 70 Turns 60 Birthday Bash on June 30th. Not to mention the Sully Cousin Reunion we cooked up at my Dad's funeral. We Sullivan cousins have such a good time together, it's too bad we usually only see each other for funerals, or so it seems. There are 7 Walthams, 6 Concords (and one departed who will be there in spirit), and 5 Falmouths. Plus assorted spouses, significant others, children of the cousins...it goes on and on. SO, we decided that cold, sad Valentine's Day 2011 that around July 4, 2012 we would have a big cookout on the Cape, like we used to when we were all kids. Fortunately coinciding with my high school class party. So Fenway had to take a back seat to Gayle Avenue, where my cousin Tiba lives in the old homestead. My dear sweet Mama sent me an early birthday present last week: one of the several books to come out on the subject, Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America, by John Powers and Ron Driscoll, published in association with my dearly beloved Boston Globe.

My buddy Karen, also a Rabid Red Sox Fan For Life, had the great fortune to be at THE 100th birthday party game vs the Yankees. She made sure I felt the love, and now I have a collection of goodies that will make Rabid Red Sox Fan For Life Jill jealous (though my 'shrine' will never have such wonderful things as a ticket and program from the Impossible Dream World Series, the LP, and a bat signed by Bobby Doerr). A box arrived shortly after that game.

 Check it out (eat your heart out Jill). First, two wonderful shirts, one long sleeved, one short. A Rabid Red Sox Fan for Life can never have enough different Red Sox Shirts in her wardrobe.

But wait there's MORE: a replica ticket, a birthday bumpah stickah and commemorative magazine. AND, a very special plastic birthday toast cup complete with sparkling grape juice and instructions NOT to open and drink it before the designated time. Seriously! I'll save it until Karen comes to visit. I'll open some sparkling wine, and she can have the Welches, and we can toast Fenway AND our 60th birthdays from here. Happy Birthday, Fenway Park!