Time to Fly

The smell of beer had never appealed to me. I'd smell it at sporting events, usually St. Louis Cardinals games, and would be appalled. At 15 years old that changed.

My dad had gotten 2 Cardinals tickets through his work. They were for the 2nd game of Opening Week. The game was on a school night. Lucky for me, my sister was in college 3 hours south, so she wasn't an option to take. He wouldn't take my mom and leave me home alone. So winner, winner for me! It was going to be a special father/daughter outing.

He picked me up from school. We had to leave immediately to get to the 7:15 game on time. It was going to be extra exciting, because they were celebrating the 2006 World Series Championship team from the season before. 

It was 2007 and iPhones had not yet been released. Which meant we didn't have the weather at our fingertips, and we were not prepared for what we were getting ourselves into.

Last year might have been the coldest game at Busch Stadium at start time, but I'd have to highly disagree that it was the coldest game ever. I would argue that it was April 2007. My dad is naturally warm blooded and that night in 2007, he was freezing. 

I honestly don't remember if the Cardinals won or lost. I remember a few things. First, I remember learning a high school letter jacket is NOT a coat. I think I had on a t-shirt, hoodie, and my letter jacket. I needed a coat! I remember the men sitting around us were drinking a ton of beer, probably to distract themselves from being cold. Lastly, I remember thinking how cool it was being at a Cardinals game with my daddy on a school night.

We left the game an inning early so we could head home. On the drive, we stopped at Taco Bell for a midnight snack. By the time we got home and I got ready for bed it was nearly 3 a.m. and I still had school the next day. There was no skipping school in our household! I didn't care though, it just made our night more memorable.

That night I was disgusted by the smell of beer. By the next day, I still thought it smelled awful, but there was something different about it. 

The smell of beer was now a memory.

Today marks 12 years of Opening Day games later, and my dad and I still reminisce on the time we went to that April game. The smell of beer still takes me back to that frigid night in April 2007, sitting at the coldest baseball game ever, watching the boys with the birds on the bat, knowing I'd be awake to the wee morning hours, still having to go to school the next day, all while creating another special Cardinals memory with my daddy.

It's Opening Day 2019! Time to fly!