Strike Two

Stephen, Scott, Mom, baby Dan, Me, Evan

My brother Stephen, Scott, Evan and I were out playing baseball in our front yard.  It was a large yard and  was all fenced in so my mother could keep us from wandering off in the neighborhood.  My parents decided early on to have a big family and they wanted us all to be best friends with each other and so we stayed home most of the time.  This event happened on one of those days when we were enjoying being kids.

We were playing baseball in our front yard and it was Scott's turn to bat, and he hit a dusey - right into the big picture window in our living room.  I remember the fear that struck us all.  It was clearly an accident, but we knew my father had a bit of a temper and he would be really upset.
When my dad got home from work he was surprisingly calm.  I think my mother must have prepared him for the blow.  He called the glass company and they would be there the next day.  I must have walked into our living room a hundred times looking at that broken glass.  It was the biggest event of the summer.
The next day the window repairmen came,  all of us circled them and watched with great interest as they took out the broken (8 ft by 4 ft) window. Then they cleaned out the window frame preparing it for the new window to be put in.  It was fascinating for us children to watch as they worked.  Then they carefully walked the new window back in the house and to our surprise it fit precisely into the hole they had so carefully prepared.  We kids were all eyes as we watched the magical procedure of replacing the huge front window.
Then they packed up and left, waved good bye, and drove down the street into the sunset.  We came back into the living room to admire the beautiful new window.  It seemed so enchanting and exciting.

My brother picked up a hammer that the repairmen had left and hollered "Hey look what I found - as he swung it in our direction the head came loose and it flew right into the new window.  We stood there horrified!  How could this happen again?  Time seemed to stand still as my mother stared at the broken window and then walked to the phone to call our Dad.  I don't think my brother Scott came out of shock for what it seemed like an eternity.  He was too frightened to even speak or move.  My mother calmly explained to my father the last ten minute escapade.
Before the day was over we could hear the same truck as it pulled into our driveway.  The same repairmen with the same tools, with a new window.  Very apologetic my mother explained what happened.  All of us kids stood even further away as we watched a repeat of the morning's episode of window replacing.  We were all silent and stood further away until it was completed.

For weeks after this experience we hardly dared walk into our living room.  And when we did, it was as if it were a church or some sacred monument.  Our voices were hushed and we walked with respect for fear our big window might be jinxed.