That Time I Listened to the World Series in Class

When I was a kid, you could send in bubblegum wrappers and get prizes. I found this envelope that held one of them in an old box yesterday. (Notice the cost for mailing a package then: six cents.)

It may have held the tiny transistor radio I took to my grade school to listen to the baseball playoffs while in class. My teacher never noticed the wire going up to my ear.

That had to be about this time of year. The team I was cheering for was the Cincinnati Reds, one of whose stars, Pete Rose, died a couple of days ago. The other stars were Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench.

The Reds lost the World Series to the Oakland A’s in seven games that year.

I chewed a lot of bubblegum in those days!