“It’s a wonderful feeling to be a bridge to the past and to unite generations. The sport of baseball does that, and I am just a part of it.” ~ Vin Scully, Dodgers Broadcaster since 1950
I think we all have squishy memories.
The squishy ones are the memories that have no specific moment or event to make them distinct. They remember no special day or place. No exact time. Instead of one particular thing, a bunch of routine moments from the past squish together to make one single thought.
I have a lot of squishy memories.
Here’s one.
When I was a kid we lived in California. And, on Saturdays, after the lawn was mowed and the Saturday chores were done, my dad would stretch out on his green hammock (a hammock supported by a metal frame, rather than trees, with white fringe along its sides, and with a matching green pillow attached at the top.)
The Googler, which is a frightening tool, took “vintage green hammock with white fringe” and gave me this photo of my dad’s hammock.
This is the exact one. The very same one that I haven’t seen in 40 years. I was so surprised to see it, I did a double-take. And, then I patted myself on the back for remembering it perfectly, right down to the pillow.
I can see my dad on that hammock on Saturday afternoons in California, drinking a Coors beer, with a blue portable radio that he brought out onto the patio with him. Listening to a ballgame.
Almost always, listening to Vin Scully call a Dodgers game.
This is something Vin Scully still does. Something he has done for 67 years. Something that he will only do for two more weeks before he retires at age 88.
To hear Vin Scully’s voice is to bring me back to Saturdays with my dad in his hammock. Sunny, warm days, when the most important choice I had to make was deciding whether to roller skate first, then go swimming, or to go swimming first, then roller skate.
To hear Vin’s voice is to have that Saturday back. A day in California a long time ago, when I was small and my dad was in his hammock.
And, when Vin retires at the end of this season, that memory will fade just a little, become just a little bit blurrier, a little bit squishier.
A lovely interview on National Public Radio this morning with Vin Scully. Listen here.
https://www.npr.org/player/embed/494684760/494684761
The Baseball Bloggess 
Was listening to NPR yesterday but missed this interview. Thanks for sharing. Vin’s iconic voice will be missed.
Nope, you didn’t miss it … it was just on this morning (Tuesday) as I was driving to my studio. I had a little break in my morning and couldn’t wait to share it with everyone. I can’t imagine baseball without Vin’s voice as the soundtrack to so much of it!
Wonderful memory of your Dad and baseball! That hammock looks so inviting! Loved the interview of Vin and thinking back to the many times I have heard him interviewed or talked about – always a gentleman and baseball advocate. Thank you !
Thanks, Sharon … it was a great hammock and I’m still a little weirded out that I could so easily find a photo of that exact one! :)
What a great post. It made me think of my grandparents in Oberon ND listening to the MN Twins games on the radio in their house.
Thanks, Lisa! I remember listening to the Twins on KDLR during my teenage years in North Dakota. Often in the thick of summer, the local news guys would break into the game to announce a thunderstorm or tornado warning in the area. To this day, whenever I see the Twins I think of a tornado!
Great stuff….and thanks for sharing the interview!
Thanks, Gary. NPR always teaches me something I didn’t know … I never knew Vin started out as a Giants fan.
For me, the “squishy memories” are always about baseball and radio. When I was a kid, in Lincoln Nebraska, you used to be able to hear the baseball games in the summer time, coming from people’s open windows, front porches and back yards. The weird thing is, I can’t remember what team we would have been listening to; it might have been the Kansas City Athletics, before the team moved to Oakland in ’67. In any case, I think of those memories as I carry on the tradition, sitting in my back yard on a late summer day (usually warm, in Oakland), with a cold beer, listening to the Giants- although, now that I’m reminded that the A’s were the team of my youth, I might have to change my allegiance, despite the team’s loathsome ownership.
Radio. Baseball. Hammocks. A friend saw my post this morning and wrote to tell me that her family had the exact same hammock when she was growing up in Minnesota. Apparently my squishy memory is a ubiquitous one!
Ah I loved this post. I love contemplation, memories and hammocks.
Thank you! I’m a big fan of hammocks (and afternoon naps), too.