The weather today was ideal. Not too hot, not too cold, just....right. The crowd was big, warm and friendly. It was opening day at Southeast Denver Baseball. Once again this year, our Color Guard was invited to present the colors at their Opening Day ceremonies. The scouts brought their "A" game and did a terrific job honoring our country and our great state.
Not only did our scouts present the colors in the short infield, but several of our adults were on hand to raise the American Flag in center field. We got out to the flag pole with plenty of time to spare, however, the flag pole was not ready for prime time.
The flag pole had a pulley at the top, which was only marginally functional. They had a clothes line to which the flag was to be attached. The clothes line was not any longer than absolutely necessary, so the standards to which the flag was to attach (little hooks) were at the top of the flag pole, and there wasn't enough weight with the hooks, to get them down from the top of the flag pole.
Well, there we were, two mom's looking at the top of the flag pole, to figure out how to get the hooks down, One of us had to climb the fence, and get the hooks down to where we could hook the flag for raising. I'm not nearly as nimble as I once was, and the other mom, decided to accept the challenge. Even though the guide to safe scouting would have flipped a page over this maneuver, we tried to make it as safe as possible. And failed. I was the spotter, and mom on the fence most likely would have been fine, had she fallen. Thankfully, she didn't fall, unfortunately she got a nasty cut on her finger from the fence, but she was successful in the over all mission of getting the hooks within reach. Kudos to mom on the fence.
Coming down, her finger was bleeding pretty good, and apparently I ended up with blood on my nose and cheeks making sure she didn't fall, but the blood wasn't mine. Another one of our moms was with one of the baseball teams, and called her husband (a doctor) to look at the finger. The baseball mom was kind enough to wipe off my nose and cheeks and I was as good as new. Mom on the fence went back to the dugout to have her finger bandaged, and thankfully, no stitches were needed. She sent yet ANOTHER mom out to the flag pole to help with the flag raising, and about 45 minutes later, the singer started the Star Spangled Banner, and the scouts marched out to short center field, and the American Flag was raised out in center field.
We had a bit of tweaking in center field to get the flag just right, after which we all met up after the ceremony. We had more parents we could have run in as substitutes, thankfully we didn't need to do that. Those parents got to watch the scouts do their thing with an unobstructed view.
It really does take a village. Thanks to all the parents who got their scouts to the field (following a camping trip the same weekend), and special thanks to mom on the fence for taking one for the team.
It was a good day.
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