Month: October 2023

My wife travels a lot for work. If she’s traveling to a cool place we’ve wanted to visit together, I sometimes will join her at the end of the trip and we will spend a few days vacationing. Other less exciting trips I skip. This most recent trip was one of those less exciting destinations. (I am refraining from mentioning exactly where, as years ago I took a silly jab at a city and I found there were some quite proud defenders of Cleveland. I don’t need that hassle again.)

She would be flying out on my birthday. A few months prior, when she was hammering out her flight details, I mentioned that, since it was my birthday, I may fly out, too, to fulfill a lifelong dream – visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

I have been a baseball fan my whole life. My first job was in a baseball card store. I was in Fulton County Stadium with my dad when the Braves won the World Series in 1995. (My wife and I were dating at the time, and she was there with her dad, too.) Whenever I’ve played sports I try to get the number 3 because of Dale Murphy. I love listening to baseball, watching baseball, reading about baseball, and just generally thinking about baseball.

And if you are like me when it comes to baseball, I think you should stop what you are doing and make your plans now. It’s that amazing. A few takeaways:

• I flew into Albany and drove a little over an hour to Cooperstown. I’ve never spent any time in upstate New York. It is beautiful country. And the leaves were beginning to change into a fantastic burst of fall color. Several locals said the colors were kinda dull this year. I assured them that to me, they were stunning. And I reminded them that the colors we have where I live are just green and brown.
• Cooperstown is a tiny little hamlet, with a single stoplight in town. But it’s a quaint, clean town with the Hall as its anchor.
• I was at the Hall about 10 minutes before it opened. There were several other folks who had started to gather. We started chatting about baseball (naturally). A Dodgers fan had made the trip from Reno. A Yankees fan had driven from the City. A man with broken English said with a smile that he had come from Japan. “For baseball!” he said. 
• I am sure all four of us experienced similar feelings of awe walking through the Hall. But for different reasons. I had a chat with the plaque of every Braves player (and wished once again that there was one for Murph.) I watched a video clip of the Pine Tar Incident over and over, and each time it ended I shifted my eyes to stare at George Brett’s ACTUAL pine tar bat. I read detailed histories of the Negro Leagues and learned more than I ever knew. I saw the most valuable baseball card, the 1911 Honus Wagner. And and on and on.
• Baseball doesn’t shy away from some of its recent scandals, either. The Hall of Fame may never have a plaque for Rose or Bonds or Clemens. And that’s why “And Museum” is important. In the museum, away from the Hall honoring baseball royalty, is a whole display about Pete Rose. And his gambling. There is one about that magical summer of 1998 when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were bashing home runs at a record pace. And the subsequent steroid fallout that tarnished that summer (even if we all probably kinda did know it at the time, but didn’t want to admit it.)

I spent the whole day there, and I probably went through it at least four times, finding something new each time. It was a magical day that I highly recommend to any baseball fan. Reward yourself. Pay tribute to your heroes. Take in the magic of the sport you love. For Baseball.

Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken, S.C. and now lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can e-mail him at scmgibbons@gmail.com.

My wife and I are shopping for a new mattress, and I have to say, bed technology has made some big strides since the last time we bought one.

We’ve had our mattress for probably 20 years, which is way longer – like more than double the time – of a recommended mattress lifespan.

When we bought it, I think we went the fairly traditional way to buy one:

1. Go to one of what seems like way too many stores in your area.
2. Start lying down on bed in the middle of a showroom while other folks do the same thing in something that without context must look really weird.
3. Realize you’ve tried out about a dozen mattresses and you can’t really remember which was one which.
4. Shrug and tell your wife, “Look, just get whatever one. Can we go?”

But this time I vowed to have a little more patience, partly because one of the many reasons we are getting a new bed is my back. I have some back issues, issues which have led my orthopedist to say that my spine is “chronologically much older” than I am. I do not think that is a compliment, like referring to a precocious child.

In an effort to offset said back issues, I have been going through various physical therapy channels. My wife, however, has also suggested two other changes: (1) new shoes and (b) a new mattress. I told her beds are really expensive, and, sorry, but there just aren’t magic shoes out there. And then I got a couple of pairs of what apparently are magic shoes. OK, they aren’t magic. They’re just super cushioned and what runners wear. Once I conceded the shoes were helping, I said we could move on to the mattress.

My wife suggested we should get an adjustable bed. I was familiar with these, but I had some concerns. For one thing, what if I wanted my feet up and she didn’t? What if she wanted to stay propped up watching tv, and I didn’t? Talking to me like you would to a very non-precocious toddler, she explained both sides adjust independently.

We went to a store and tried a few out. These actually felt a whole lot better than our current mattress, which in comparison to these new ones feels like a lumpy sack stuffed with old pillows. (OK, it’s not THAT bad.)

The sales guy was also showing me all of the add-on features – cooling technology, vibrating massage, and bluetooth. Going back to my basic self, I said, “Yeah, do you just have it in ‘bed’ style, but where you can still put your feet up?”

The split king also presented a surprise plus for us, as my wife and I found two pretty different firmnesses that we preferred. Which either means one of us or both of us has been sleeping on less than our ideal firmness of mattress for two decades.

I was pretty impressed and was really good to go with the first place we stopped. “So what does this run us?”

Let’s just say the downpayment on our first house was less than this.

We decided to keep shopping and see what other options are out there. My wife did remind me a couple of times that prices have, in fact, gone up a smidge in the last 20 years, and that we also are not buying a plain ol’ mattress. It was her diplomatic way of saying, “Quit being a cheapskate.” 

After about five stores, we are pretty sure we have narrowed down what we want. My wife has done some comparison shopping and has found us a deal that doesn’t make me wince. Of course, if the bed has the same magical healing properties as the shoes, it will be well worth the cost. And the big pain moving forward will be thinking about how I waited so long to get it.

Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken, S.C. and now lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can e-mail him at scmgibbons@gmail.com.

I love going to the movies. I would not consider myself a movie elitist in the least, as I generally focus my viewing on superhero, space and action movies.

When I go to the theater, I want to escape from the world for two hours. But I do like to escape with a bit of routine, as is baked into the bread that is me.

First off, I vastly prefer a matinee, preferably the first of the day. They are usually less crowded, and I really don’t want to go to a movie at night when my internal clock starts saying, “Alright, time to wrap it up, Mike!”

I also have my preferred seats – aisle seats right behind the section reserved for wheelchairs, as it is set higher than other rows and presents very little chance of someone blocking my view, unless someone who is about 12 feet tall sits in front of me.

Lastly, I generally go to the movie theater right around the corner from my house because, well, obviously.

Generally, I go to the movies with my kids, in particular when it comes to action, superhero and space movies. This is because my wife doesn’t particularly get into those, and once fell asleep at a Spider-Man movie. (That said, she loved The Martian!)

But this time we were going to see a comedy that she did want to go see. It was on our daughter’s 23rd birthday, and she wanted to go see a movie with us and her finance. Swell idea. Matinee show, a little shopping with mom and daughter while I took a nap on the couch while watching a baseball game, and then dinner out. Perfect way to celebrate.

My wife was getting ready to order tickets when she noticed on a local Facebook page that quite a few people were complaining about the air conditioner being out at our local theater. We all were very much in agreement that sitting in a theater without AC in August was an absolute negative for us.

So we hopped on out of my comfort zone and got tickets to a different theater, about 30 minutes away.

And outside of that comfort zone was a TON of comfort. The theater we went to is one that has all reclining seats. Plenty of room to stretch out, great clearance from row to row, and of course that sweet, sweet air conditioning.

As I played with my settings on my recliner to find the perfect movie watching angle, I noticed that the recliner went almost completely horizontal. Important to remember if I ever find myself in an evening movie and need to catch some shuteye.

We had a great time at the movie, thanks to the movie itself and the recliners. The popcorn was standard issue movie popcorn, which is a national treasure. Also, I am very much in the minority that the popcorn should have no butter because it’s gross and that’s one of the few food hills I will die on.

When we left the theater – full up on popcorn, nice and relaxed thanks to our seats, and thoroughly feeling delighted by a fun movie – we all said that we really liked the theater and wouldn’t mind making the short trek on occasion in reclining style. And the AC doesn’t get fixed by the time I go to my next movie? I assure you I’ll take the trek.

Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken, S.C. and now lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can e-mail him at scmgibbons@gmail.com.

My wife took a trip to the mountains recently. We stayed at a lovely rental that my wife found on the internet. She is always in charge of making these reservations because she is very creative and discerning, and because she will never forget Mardi Gras 1994.

We were in college and decided to head to New Orleans to take part in the festivities. I assured her that I had taken care of accommodations.

When we arrived in the Big Easy, we headed into the crowd when I shared with her what our plans were – we would find one of my fraternity brothers who lives in New Orleans and see if we could stay with them.

So there were a few problems in my plan. First, I was going on the assumption that my fraternity brothers were also in town, and not back in Tuscaloosa, AL. Second, randomly bumping into someone you know at Mardi Gras is statistically a smidge of a challenge. If you have never been to Mardi Gras, let me describe the crowds to you. You know those photos you see from the 1950s of young folks trying to fit as many people in a phone booth as they can? Well imagine the phone booth in the City of New Orleans.

Needless to say, my wife was less than pleased with this decision. However, her ire only lasted for about an hour, as we ran into TWO different fraternity brothers, both of whom offered accommodations.

Looking back on this experience with the benefit of a bit of wisdom, I think of the thing I used to say to my kids when they did something less than advisable, but it still kinda worked out. “If I drive across town and run every red light and make it to my destination without wrecking, it doesn’t suddenly make it a good idea.”

Since that time, my wife has made our travel plans. And it works quite well, since she is exceptionally good at it. In fact, the one time I can think of where she didn’t handle it, it went not so well.

My son and I decided to spend a weekend in the mountains a few years ago. We were going to a place we’d been before, and I knew there was a hotel right at the base of the mountain. It was in the winter, so no doubt there would be plenty of vacancies.

And there were no vacancies. I called another hotel. And another. And another. After the fifth one told me they were full, I asked if there was some sort of festival going on or something. “Sir, it’s Valentine’s weekend. Everything books up around here.”

We eventually found a place at a sketchy joint an hour or so down the interstate. When I called my wife to explain to her the situation, she said, “Seems about right.”

I am sure that I could competently do it if I actually put my mind to it. But part of the problem is that I think somewhere in my subconscious is a part of me that likes to flirt with danger, but not actual real danger that could, you know, hurt. It’s the same reason I have left my office with an estimated 22 miles left on my gas tank for a 20-minute commute over two bridges that, if there is an accident, will definitely make me run out of gas. DANGER!

We have a few trips planned over the next few years, and I think I will try and provide my usual inputs on the best way to get there and the best small town diners along the way. That and looking for things that we can do that are dangerous. Only, again, not that dangerous.

Mike Gibbons was born and raised in Aiken, S.C. and now lives in Mount Pleasant, S.C. A graduate of the University of Alabama, you can e-mail him at scmgibbons@gmail.com.