I don't even know who his favorite team was

I am sitting here watching baseball with Sheldon and Trixiebelle.  The two teenagers had other activities this lovely May evening.  I can't watch baseball on tv without thinking of my Grandaddy B.  When I was a kid I lived with my paternal grandparents every summer.  My mom was a teacher and she had to take college courses every summer, so my brother and I stayed with my grandparents all summer long.  It was a fabulous childhood as my grandparents lived in sleepy Roanoke, Va and had a house at Smith Mountain Lake which is about an hour away from there.  Back in those days SML was VERY sleepy, but not so much these days. 

My family lived just outside a tiny town in the northern Shenandoah Valley.  We had no sidewalks or even paved streets in our neighborhood, so it was extra special for us living in Roanoke because we were surrounded by the best parts of life in the suburbs.  We had lots of friends in the neighborhood, paved streets for riding bikes, lots of big back yards with tons of hide and seek choices.  During the week we would go down to the lake which meant lazy days of swimming til we were ready to drop and then eating fresh fish that Grandaddy caught for our dinner.  My Grandma B. was an excellent cook and grew most of our veggies in her acre garden.

My grandfather loved baseball and always had the game on in the evenings.  I would play outside with my friends in the neighborhood until darkness fell and we were all forced inside.  My grandparents house was air conditioned which was a novelty for me as the homes I grew up in never had AC.  I remember shock of coming inside the cool, quiet house after being outside playing for hours in the heat and humidity with the crickets and cicadas and birds and children making a ruckus outdoors.  My grandfather would be in his favorite chair working on a cross word puzzle and watching the game.  He didn't say much, and I don't remember him reacting to the game at all.  I think it was just background noise for his puzzle.  I'm sure he was paying attention, but I never heard him react to things like the guys I have watched games with as an adult.