July 04, 2009

Five Minutes to Ernie

It was 1989 and my Grandpa Morgan was quoted in Sports Illustrated. It was very cool. The article was about Ernie Harwell and Joe Falls was interviewed. He said he knows a service station owner in Clarkston, Michigan, who says he works every day from "7 a.m. to five minutes to Ernie."

In 2004, my Grandpa was the Grand Marshal of the Clarkston Independence Day Parade for the second time. I didn't know you could Grand Marshal more than once, but he did. He ran Morgan's service from the time he opened it in 1932 at the age of 16 until he walked out on Friday, September 23, 2005, to go to a ballgame with his grandson. How cool is it, though, that he served as the Grand Marshal twice!

Our family spend many 4ths of July down in Clarkston. I remember one, probably 1976, when I was actually riding in an Independence Township Fire Truck. I abandoned the ride early into it when one of the other kids riding in the cab twisted a knob and told me it would probably make the fire truck blow up. I think he just wanted to get rid of me ...

On this 4th of July, it's about 70 degrees outside and it might rain. But, it's appropriate that the Tigers are on the national game of the week in the afternoon. They're playing in Minnesota in a dome, so they'll play no matter what. Even if they did play (and win) in 16 innings. Ernie's 90 now himself and slowing down a little bit. We still miss his voice on the Tigers radio games, but not as much as we miss Grandpa Morgan.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!



You can find out more about the car and why it's important in Morgan lore by tuning into Rick's Writing Again tomorrow. Part 1 of the "Bar Harbor" story was written in 2007 and never completed. It'll arrive tomorrow ...

1 comment:

Carl and Sally said...

You bet we miss Grandpa Morgan a LOT!

He was the bestest of the best!