Little darling, it’s been a long, cold lonely winter. Little darling, It feels like years since it’s been here.
Here comes the sun.
Since Covid struck, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter, and it’s lasted for two years. I used to travel to parties in New York regularly, but I’ve only been on three trips outside of Lancaster in the past two years. All of them were for funerals. The most recent was for my sister-in-law, Mrs. X, who passed away in February.
Now the pandemic is finally waning, but Mr. Putin is threatening us with another long, lonely winter, a nuclear one. As each new sorrow arrives, I keep reminding myself of the words in the song Dedicated to the One I Love, “The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”
I think that we’re all anxious for dawn to get here. At least, we’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, and, fingers crossed, this time it just might be sunlight, not another Covid mutation or the headlights of another trainload of disasters heading our way.
People are slowly getting back to normal. Restaurants are reopening. The Fulton Theatre here in Lancaster recently reopened. My friend Marianne in New York let me know that she is finally going to be able to see the Broadway show she bought tickets to before Covid hit and the lights went out on Broadway. Normal is coming back. Locally, we no longer need to wear a mask everywhere we go. That might not sound like much, but it is a big psychological boost.
After 9/11, much of New York shut down and it was baseball that finally brought New York out of its doldrums and back to life. Now Major League baseball is having a contract dispute with the ball players, but the Minor Leagues are unaffected by the dispute, and the Lancaster Barnstormers will be leading the return to normalcy here in Lancaster.
They ran a special promotion today for 2022. You could buy 20 tickets for just $22. The tickets are good for any home game during April, May, and June. The gimmick was that the promotion was only available for 22 minutes this morning, between 9 a.m. and 9:22 a.m. I’m not usually awake that early, but it’s not every day that tickets to see my favorite ball club can be had for just a buck. So, I got there at 7:30 and I was the first one on line. As soon as I stood at the ticket window, though, dozens of car doors opened, and other bargain-loving baseball fans emerged from their warm cars to queue up with me on the chilly morning. There are only 28 home games during this span, but I bought 2 packages, 40 tickets. As I held the big stack of tickets it felt like I held a little sunshine in my hand. As I stepped out of the ticket office, I also felt some warm sunshine on my face. Here comes the sun, I thought. Here comes the dawn.
Let’s go Barnstormers. Let’s go Lancaster. Let’s go world.
It’s a new dawn, people.
Peace & Love, and all of the above,
Earl
earlthepearl137 