Getting excited about a bag of dirt.

Oh dear, to get excited about a little bag of dirt is bordering on sad.

It reminded me of an incident many years ago when a friend of mine, who supported Charlton Athletic, carefully planted a small 1 foot square of turf in his back garden that he had removed (one would think illegally) from the playing surface of Charlton's home ground 'The Valley'.
Charlton, who had been struck by a monetary crisis, had decided to stop playing at the ground they had played at for over 70 years and ground share with a close rival Crystal Palace. The rivalry between these two clubs may not be as fierce as it is at Liverpool, Glasgow or Chicago but it comes close. There was understandably a level of animosity towards the current owners of the club, so when the final whistle blew at the final game at The Valley, supporters flooded onto the pitch to say farewell to the team and the beloved ground. Suddenly people began to dig up the pitch and take various other souvenirs; corner flags, seats, fencing, roughly anything that had stopped moving. My friend  and his dad carried the section of turf home and lovingly planted it in the backyard. So proud of this small piece of grass that he placed a white picket fence around its border and tendered it more carefully than any other part of the garden. He showed the turf to anyone who visited, like a person who owned a original artwork would delight in informing visitors 'It's an original Picasso, you know!' There was, I think, a hope that it would eventually spread to the rest of the lawn and he could inform visitors -'It's the original Valley turf, you know!'

The Fenway dirt was part of a very interesting package that arrived from Jason at The Writers Journey.It contained a bonanza of ephemia relating to the Red Sox.
Red Sox schedules.

Stickers

An oddball collection of baseball cards. Including this amazing 3D 'card' that, when placed on a stand, can be set on a rocking motion so that Nomar hits a ball and make an incredible catch.

And of course the Fenway Park dirt.

What did I do when I received this package. I opened the dirt to smell it, hoping that in some way it would give me a feel of the ballpark. I poured a small pile into my hand examining it closely. No bat fragments or Red Sox DNA, just a nice pile of red grit, coarser than I thought it would be. I was expecting a more sandy feel, must really hurt to slide on.

Thank you Jason for this amazing treasure trove of Red Sox items.

Trade with Jason from The Writer's Journey

Midweek this big box of cards arrived from Jason of The Writer's Journey. It was in exchange for some Reds cards and a few packs of football cards for his sons. My side of the trade can be seen here.

The box had to sit unopened on my desk, which was a bit of a strain, but for good reason. As my wife would put it ,'I would be lost to the world..' if I had opened it to see the baseball goodness inside. It had to wait, school is finishing for the summer break (summer? wet, windy and cold at the moment) and a fellow teacher and I run a Movie and Animation club at school. Our end of year project is to make a Dr Who episode.

Last year our episode titled 'Parasite' lasted 12 minutes. We filmed for about 6 weeks and the editing took about two weeks. The school caretaker made a life size 'Tardis' for us to use in the filming. He topped that this year by making our very own 'Dalek'. We had delusions of grandeur but still left ourselves 6 weeks of filming and 2 weeks of editing. It just wasn't enough time. The big red carpet event was on Friday and the movie wasn't finished until late, late, then early Friday morning and we hadn't burnt the film to DVD yet. My colleague swears by a drink called Red Bull, a caffeine rich stimulant drink that is meant to keep you awake and alert way beyond the time your body is telling you sleep! The movie ended up being 28 minutes long, suffice to say with a few too many continuity errors which are being fixed this weekend. The children enjoyed the film, we enjoyed making the film. However because of this distraction I didn't get to open the box of cards until today.

There are far too many cards to list. Thanks to Jason a huge chunk of my Red Sox wants list has disappeared.