May is here but April still is on my mind. It was a busy and memorable one in many respects but two outstanding events were the Boston Marathon with Dan running, and Paul, Andy and I viewing. The other was the musical “Experiencing God” produced by our Church and ‘starring’, in my program anyway, June McSorley. Both were inspiring encounters.
First report is of the Mecca of running, the Boston Marathon and our visit. I arrived Easter Sunday evening. I was met by Dan holding a “Boston Marathon, April 16,2001” cap that I had to immediately put on. He showed me later a copy of his Church Bulletin for April 9th, which had a short paragraph under the headline “GOOD LUCK DAN!” advising he would “have the prayers and best wishes of your St.Leo family. God speed!” We, Andy, Paul, Dan and I drove out to Framingham, some 30 miles outside the city of Boston to our motel. I was up early the next morning and went down to Dan’s room around 7 AM. We had some of his homemade muffins and juice. He had his running bag packed. It had his number, 4166, on it. It was stuffed. He wasn’t sure of the weather. It was forecasted to go up to 55 degrees but it was at that time 38, windy, and cold. His bag was full since he was preparing for any contingency. Later he told me he received free gloves at the start, which he only used for a time. The sun by noon, the race start time, made it great running weather. We, Andy, Paul and I, drove Dan over to Hopkinton State Park where a bus was waiting to transport him to the “Athlete’s Village”. He was about to see the greatest number of runners ever gathered for a race, than ever before. Here is how his young buddy Jeremy reported the scene at the Athlete’s Village, “There was so much going on! There was live music…people all over the place. They even had a tent set up where you could make one free phone call anywhere in US for free using Nextel ?… the time came when it was to place our personal belongings on the buses and get to our starting ‘corrals’ which were partitioned off by groups of thousands. The view at the start was awesome. I counted 6 Helicopters, a blimp, four of those planes that fly advertising banners behind them, two F-15 jets that flew over during the National Anthem, and a sea of about 16,000 people representing all 50 states and 52 countries!” He tells of the sights so well that I feel sorry I missed it. I thought my first gathering at Hopkinton in 1972 was a mammoth outing, but in comparison it’s like vaudeville to Broadway.
After leaving Dan off we went back to Framingham, Andy and I took a walk, and then headed for Newton. You are advised not to try driving to see the run since so many roads are blocked. Instead you use the public transportation. Newton was the 17-mile point and a train station. We got there at 11 AM and found the parking lot nearly full. We waited with many others since I am sure the estimated crowds from Hopkinton to Boston were over 500,000. We chatted with the passing parade of people and would you believe we met a couple from St.Pete’s Beach, just over the hill from here (if we had one in Florida), who had with them a father-in-law or father, from Philadelphia. Paul and Andy had a great time bragging about the old man having run Boston and some 20 or more other marathons. Dan came by 3 hours and 12 minutes later and he missed seeing Paul and I but did see Andy and Jeremy’s Dad. We then boarded a train with scores of others, so many that they were lined up for blocks along the tracks and of course no charge for the ride. In downtown Boston the thousands milling in the streets just added to the festival nature of the whole proceeding. We found the street and allotted letter, “R”, under which we were to meet Dan. I sat on the curb next to a runner whom I learned was from Holland! I also learned that he was staying at the same motel in Framingham! Dan arrived around 4:30 PM and began a never-ending chant of the experience. He loved highfi-ing kids along the way, enjoyed the screaming girls at Wellesley College, the crowds ever present no matter the mile mark, and he had no question as why Boston is called the Mecca, the Super Bowl, of running.
His time was one minute slower than his old man in 1972. But since he was only 38 and I was 42 when I ran it, I told him he should do better when he grows up. When he called Lori, his wife, he learned of another phenomena of Boston, she had followed his time on the internet! He had a chip on his shoe and at each 5 K mark he struck a pad which recorded his time at that point. She knew his time, both chip- 3:22.29 and official 3:24.41- before we did. He finished in 3404 place! They even had it broken down in to gender, 3108, and division (age), 1912. My how things have changed since 1972!
We had a celebration dinner in a restaurant called “Legal Seafood”. I was intrigued with the name. Its history reported that it started as a fish stand in a market in one of the Boston Squares and accepted only ‘legal’ tender,as opposed to chits, or coupons apparently accepted at other stands. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I spent at Dan’s home with his wife Lori, and girls Meaghan and Hannah. Hannah now four years old came into the world with some problems with one leg not growing right. She wears a brace, supposedly. She has made so much progress that I seldom saw the brace on her and she seemed to never stop running like any other four-year-old.
The church is covered with darkness. A light dimly shines over the sanctuary. It is less of a sanctuary now, since the altar has been removed. It is more like a theater with men and women all standing on the steps where the altar was singing, and playing guitars,. Over their heads the huge cross is hanging. A musi fills the room, the musical “Experiencing God” has begun! A narrator begins to read and as he does so down the aisle comes ballerinas. All alike in costume and size, pirouetting to the music and singing voices. Behind them plodding down the aisle comes a person clothed in a robe and with turbaned head holding a shepherd’s staff. He is, as the narrator inform us, “Moses”. The screen over the singers and to the left of cross flashes pictures mostly of the stain glass windows that adorn the church. The light rises as the dancers and Moses near the altar (stage). Moses faces the audience, congregation, and the Narrator continues. The music is magnificent, there are solos, further acts performed in mime in front of the singers. There is a couple dressed in black on the right of the stage ‘signing’. They appear to us who can hear to dancing in slow motion to the music. Like any good theater before you realize it the grand finale washes over you. The church theater it reminds me of is the Solemn High Mass sung in Latin with a boys and men choir. I have seen it performed in Cathedrals. All of the music and ritual is a moving experience. The only draw back with such a Mass is that it was more like an opera in Italian. This musical service being in English was more easily enjoyed and uplifting. It was a glorious way to end the month and hopefully it will be produced again in the future.
May began with a sad note in that the Lord took Lee Sauketis (Allen) to heaven after a long struggle with cancer. We pray her loving family with the help of God will overcome the loss as quickly as possible. It happened on May 11th , Marge’s birthday, so I learned more of her dying by talking with her. It was a moving scene she described of lovely Lee dying in the arms of her caring husband Al. There could be no better way to end the story of her life.
We had the pleasure of a visit by Mary Lou Golden, June’s eldest daughter, from May 10th through the 14th. She helped her mother celebrate Mother’s Day. We went to one of our favorite seafood places, Captain Billy’s Seafood Restaurant in Tierra Verde. We did a few days at the beach, the Mom and Daughter both love the lounging on the sand and the occasionally dip in the Gulf. Happily on this visit Mary Lou had no plane problems which seemed to follow her every other time she came down. The beach by the way, was St.Pete’s Beach, the one I mentioned earlier herein about meeting a couple in Newton on the Boston Marathon route .
My son Andy who accompanied us to Boston has written a report of the event with pictures. You can view it on mcsorley.org. The picture of myself is not too flattering, I suppose because it makes me look older than I feel. Speaking of age I celebrated a birthday and received lots of cards and emails. I want to again thank all of you who made my day. The happiest moment came at the service that evening when we were in a circle praying, June thanked the Lord aloud for the little boy born 72 years ago today. I was moved and grateful. I did kid her about letting the numbers out in public, since I am really only 39 and holding. We will formally celebrate the day Sunday night with dinner out with some friends.
We will close the month of May with bus trip to Branson, MO. It the theater home of many stars, like Bobby Vinton, Yakov Smirnoff, Osmonds, Glenn Miller Band and billed as “America’s Live Entertainment Capital. Singing, comedy, banjo playing, fiddling, Broadway-style revues, magic, Big Bands – Branson has it all!” It’s a birthday treat and anniversary gift combined. We’ll tell you all about it next time.