The Lillie in the title of this essay is my mother, to whom you have been introduced before. Lillie was born in Pope County, Illinois on the banks of the Ohio River in a community called Lusk. It was not a town at all. It was simply a landing spot for the folks who traversed across the Ohio River from Kentucky and came to rest in this spot in Illinois. In due time, Lillie met my father, Ezra Senior, and moved to Clayton, Missouri. As time went on, my father became the superintendent of the Lilac Roost Dairy Farms in Clayton. Between the two of them, eight children were produced.
Lillie was a country girl. After she moved to St. Louis, she adopted a few of the sophisticated ways of the big city. But on thoughts spiritual, she retained her views as a country person. For the bulk of her life, Lillie could see signs that the end of the world was quickly approaching. She was born in 1882 but that made small difference to Lillie. The fact that the world had not collapsed in 1882 years was of no significance. Perhaps the rest of her family was immune to the signs of the end of the world approaching. I of course was among those who were disbelievers. But all of that changed over this weekend.
By this time you may have come to realize that the St. Louis Cardinals, a baseball team, has won the World Series. I had an uncle by marriage who pronounced that name as World Serious. Nonetheless, it was done in a most remarkable fashion. The St. Louis Cardinals were down to their last strike in the ninth inning of the sixth game, which would have sent them home for the year. Again, the Cardinals were down to their last strike in the tenth inning of the sixth game, this being an extra-inning game. As life would turn out, the Cardinal third baseman hit a home run in the 11th inning, thus prolonging the series into the final seventh game. Taking one thing with another, the Cardinals won the final game, which allowed them to be called the World Series Champs for 2011.
My mother knew nothing, or virtually nothing, about baseball. I know that she decried the playing of major league baseball on Sundays. But that was the most lucrative time for the local teams, the Browns and the Cardinals, to play their games, so they played them. While Lillie was largely ignorant of the standings of major league baseball, I assume that she must have paid attention in October of 1926 when the Cardinals defeated the highly-favored New York Yankees to take their first World Series title. As I have related before, that is my first memory of anything in this world. My brothers, who were 11 and 12 years or more older than I was, became so excited with the Cardinal victory and they made such a ruckus that the memory has stayed with my mind for all of the ensuing 85 years.
But this year was different. Late in the season, the St. Louis Cardinals found themselves about ten games behind the Atlanta Braves for what is now called the wild card slot which goes to teams having a superior second place finish. This is done for the purpose of furnishing four teams to play in the playoff series.
But the Cardinals overcame that disadvantage and went on to win the World Series in the most improbable manner. They were down to their final strike in the ninth inning and down to their final strike again in the tenth inning of the sixth game. But they did not count on the Cardinal third baseman who hit a triple in the ninth inning and another Cardinal batter hit a home run in the 10th inning to give the victory to the Cardinals in the sixth game of the World Series this year. The seventh game was won handily by the Cardinals.
For all of these years, I had been a disbeliever in the Supreme Authority from above. But now my mind has had its share of doubts and I come down on the side that maybe Lillie had something right all along. No baseball club has ever been down to its final strike on at least two occasions and then gone on to become the world’s champions.
On top of that, in October of 2011, the east coast was enduring a snow storm, which is highly unlikely before Halloween. This is October 29 and we are enduring a snow storm that may eventually dump six to seven inches upon our heads.
This is the first time within the memory of those living around us that we have ever encountered a snow storm before Halloween. Ordinarily in this part of New Jersey, balmy weather exists until nearly Christmas time.
But that was yesteryear and this is today. So in the final summation of this essay writer, who has been around for nearly 90 years, this is a fortuitous series of events. Fortunately yesterday we had the Cardinal victory in the World Series which was of course a miracle in itself. Then today we woke up to find we are being subjected to an early season snow fall. Between these two monumental events, we can only conclude that Lillie was right all along. This may very well signal the end of the earth.
According to a spiritual, “there’s gonna to be fire next time” as distinguished from the floods of Noah’s time. I do not know whether it is going to be a fire or floods, because I will leave that to the preachers who are in daily communication with God. I do know that the juxtaposition of the Cardinal victory and the premature snow fall clearly marks this as the prospective end of the world. Even an infidel such as myself would know what is taking place.
So my mother, Lillie, had it right all along. She knew almost nothing about baseball but she alleged that the spirits up above us work in mysterious ways. When the Cardinals were down to their last strike in the ninth inning and again in the tenth inning, and when a snow storm appears in New Jersey before Halloween, there can be no doubt about it. These events presage the end of the world. And I leave you with the thought that I will be shopping for a fireproof suit tomorrow morning.
There is one sorry historical note with respect to the arrival of November first. According to my calendar, it will be at least five months before a meaningful major league game is played again. This will be a long, long winter without baseball. But as I grieve for the start of the next season, I will always remember that in the 2011 season, the St. Louis Cardinals were the World Champs. That is about as good as it gets.
E. E. CARR
October 29, 2011
Essay 605
~~~
Kevin’s commentary: Two things strike me here. The first is that it apparently only takes me four generations to hit the 1800s, which is amazing. I have never known any of my great grandparents and I am somewhat envious of those who get that chance. Unfortunately, Pop’s mother did not see fit to live to the age of 108, which would have been requisite for me to get to see her. Perhaps Pop can lecture her on this fact in Heaven.
The second thing that strikes me is that I was never able to understand the enthusiasm and devotion surrounding sports at all, much less baseball, until relatively recently when I discovered a competitive video game by the name of Starcraft. Together these two thoughts that this essay inspired in me have combined in my head, which has left me picturing what it might be like to explain Starcraft to Lillie Carr. I feel that such a task would probably be beyond me, even though I was able to somewhat explain the game of “Farmville” to my other 90-year-old grandparent (“it is a game that aspires to let players pretend to be farmers, played on ‘Facebook’ which is a website that lets you air your personal business to the whole world”).