Rant #1,633: Spring Hopes Eternal

This Sunday, we finally move out of winter doldrums on start the spring season.

The spring is my favorite season, by far, as I was a spring baby, born in April 1957.

But it also signifies that warmer weather is here, acting as the passageway for summer to come, in just a few months.

Nonetheless, in my neck of the woods, the weatherman has predicted some snow for this weekend. We could get anywhere from the proverbial "wintery mix" to several inches, from late Sunday into Monday.

So spring doesn't necessarily mean warmth early on, but the promise of warmer weather in the near future.

To me, spring also means the start of the baseball season, and it gives me occasion to check out the one and only video that I have ever put up on YouTube. (I post it here as a personal video because I still have not figured out why I cannot post links to YouTube videos here as I once did. If you would rather watch it from YouTube directly, the address is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuSm3ZS45Ks

I have had it here before, but for newbies, it is worth mentioning again.

It shows me playing ball in Little League from around 1966, so I was all of nine years old.

I was a typical nine-year-old of the day. I didn't mind school, loved to read comic books and collect baseball cards and records, and I simply loved baseball.

I lived in a relatively new area of Queens, New York, called Rochdale Village, and my little world was all I needed back then, and I had as many friends as could be.

And I looked forward to Saturday morning, because that is generally when we played in Little League.

At first, we played on a completely dirt field, and you knew you played hard when you were full of dirt and grim at the end of the game.

Later, we played in a gravel pit; yes, a gravel pit, and you really learned how to play playing on rocks.

But whatever the case, I loved it, and the video on YouTube really shows my enthusiasm, even with the kicker at the end, which I won't spoil for those who haven't seen the video yet.

But looking at the video, hope certainly sprung eternal when I view myself from eons ago.

I still thought I could be a pro baseball player back then, playing for the New York Yankees, of course.

It wasn't meant to be, but hope still "springs" eternal for me, as baseball will soon enter the sports picture.

There really is nothing profound to say about the video, which was taken by my father on one of those now-ancient 8mm movie cameras from that time.

I also see people that I grew up with in that video, so I am not seeing just me in this less than a minute snippet, but others who I hope are doing fine and well all these years later.

I also see my old neighborhood, and that is a treat to me to.

You might look at the video and shrug your shoulders, but for me way back when, this video really spoke volumes about where I was at the time, mentally, physically and emotionally.

I lived for the weekend then as I do now, but I lived for the weekend not as much as that it provided me a breather from school as much as it provided me with an opportunity to play the game I loved, and still love.

So watch the video, and laugh along with me; and yes, I guess hope still springs eternal with me, in a matter of speaking.

Or maybe it is actually that my spring hopes are eternal.

And when I watch the video, I am nine years old all over again ... .

Speak to you again on Monday.