Boys of Summer Book - Entry #92

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

100% proceeds go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. 

Interview with Pam Milton, 

Young Onset Parkinsoian 

at the YOPN, Minneapolis 2004

Pam Milton

RC:

Women are less-known to have Parkinson’s. Do you have any numbers or percentages on that?

PM:

I don’t know the percentage but you’re right. There are a lot more men than women. 

RC:

Do people act surprised when you tell them you have Parkinson’s?

PM:

Oh yeah. Very. I’ve had it for 19 years. 

RC:

And how did you come about knowing you had it?

PM:

When I was pregnant with my first son, I was 22, my right hand started shaking. I went to the neurologist and he said, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. And it took me 15 years to get a diagnosis. It wasn’t until Michael J Fox came out and said he had it. And some people said, y’all are exactly the same age, maybe you have it, too. And they tried me on sinemet and it worked. So I found out in 1999. 

RC:

And what was that feeling when you got the diagnosis?

PM:

I was elated at first because I thought, “I know what’s wrong with me”. I’m not crazy. It’s not all in my head. It’s not just nerves. But then it sunk in. What got me was that it’s not just physical. The cognitive stuff is what gets me. 

RC:

What have you experienced on the cognitive front?

PM:

The short-term memory loss. Inability to...numbers don’t work any more. Checkbook? Forget about it. Don’t do it. Not being able to find words. Not being able to remember -- oh, I was sitting at my laptop the other day and I couldn’t remember where the phone cord went. I was looking over the whole thing and it just wasn’t there. I had to have someone show me. Just stuff like that. 

RC:

So is that frustrating?

PM:

Yeah, it’s frustrating. Sometimes it makes me feel old. I don’t want to feel old. I’m only 42. I’m not ready to feel old yet. 

RC:

You said we were living your dream. What do you mean?

PM:

I’ve wanted to go to Yankee Stadium. I’ve wanted to go to Wrigley Field. I’ve wanted to go all over, just visiting different baseball fields. My dad thought I was going to be a boy, so I’ve been watching the Atlanta Braves since I was five years old -- or younger. And they finally got good. They’re finally worth watching which is fantastic. My oldest son played in high school. He played since he was four. And now he doesn’t play any more and I’m like, “I want baseball!” He was a pitcher and he was good. He had a curveball that could make a batter look stupid. 

RC:

You’re a proud mama.

PM:

Oh, just a little bit. We used to laugh -- he’d get up on the mound and I’d hide behind the pole because I couldn’t watch him. I’d hide and then I’d look and then I’d get out there and start yelling. He’d look over at me and go, “Shut up, mom!”

(She laughs)

I’ve always told my husband that I want to rent an RV, drive around the country and just go to all the baseball fields. 

RC:

Do you think you might do that?

PM:

I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe one day. It would be awesome. But when I heard what y’all are doing I thought, “God! They’re living my dream! I want to do that so bad!”

RC:

What’s great about baseball?

PM:

The fans. The fans are fantastic. The Atlanta fans are great. I’ve watched different events happen for players -- milestones where the fans were so curteous and so appreciative of what they’re watching. I was listening to the radio when Hank Aaron hit 715. It was awesome. It was so cool. I was listening the year before, the last game when he didn’t hit it. You know? It was almost there and he just didn’t quite get it. 

It’s...it’s America. I love football. I love college football. Pro football -- eh. But baseball -- baseball is great. My grandmother’s 87 years old. She never misses a Braves game. I mean, we had a family reunion last weekend. She went downstairs. Forgot about everybody, went downstairs and watched the Braves. It’s just great. 

RC:

You said baseball is American. What does that mean?

PM:

Aw, come on. Okay, I’ve got some  friends here from England. And they’re going to the Twins game on Sunday. And we were talking about it and they said, “We don’t even know what it’s about. We don’t have baseball.”

RC:

Do you think the history of the game is important?

PM:

Oh yeah. I used to work in insurance and we had a customer that would come in and he was really, really old. And everybody would say, he’s older than the first day of baseball. It’s always been there. 

My dad used to sell sporting gear. He has a Hank Aaron jersey that Hank Aaron signed. It was going to be mine, until I had two brothers. I have a feeling they’ll get it. 

Boys of Summer Book - Entry #90

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

100% proceeds go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. 

July 29, 2004 - Bob
Minneapolis, MN

We arrived at the YOPC after the long drive. I was initially distracted as our plans for tomorrow’s Chicago Cubs game were very much in limbo after seemingly being squared away just yesterday.

We were warmly welcomed, receiving hugs from some folks we knew like Mike O’Leary, Mary Ann Sprinkle and Jack Hungelman. We were given the opportunity to tell our story to everyone. Afterward, I led everyone in singing a round of “Take me out to the ballgame”.

Just like everywhere else, the magic started happening as we started listening.

Graphic Artist Alan Rabinowitz was diagnosed with PD in June of 1999. 

BC:
Alan, you grew up as a--

AR:
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. And I was taught as a little kid that the Dodgers were the best team and the Yankees were the enemy.

BC:
And when were you born?

AR:
1951 in Brooklyn. The same year that Mr. Thompson hit the home run over Branca, “The shot heard ‘round the world.”

BC:
And how did that call go?

AR:
"The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!" At any rate my first baseball game that I was supposed to go to I was about five years old. It got rained out. And the next year the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn. Then I became a Mets fan. I could never root for the Yankees. I could never, ever -- they were the other guys. They were from the Bronx, we were from Brooklyn. Pterodactyls still fly through the skies of the Bronx. So I became a Mets fan. As bad as they were, they were still our team. We’d go to the Polo Grounds or out to Shea and they were bad but it was fun.

Then it was the summer of ‘69 which was...unbelievable. Or as we used to say back in the neighborhood, (with heavy Brooklyn accent) “Unbelievable!” And it was one of my three favorite baseball memories. The other one was the ‘91 Braves.

I moved to Atlanta in ‘79 and saw even more bad baseball for a number of years. ‘Til the ‘91 season when the Braves coalesced and became “The Braves”. It was great. Everyone was doing the Tomahawk Chop. My son was two years old, he was doing the Tomahawk Chop. I remember doing it when we lost in the ‘91 playoffs. Lonnie Smith got deked out by Chuck Knoblauch in game seven of the World Series. Zero to Zero, Terry Pendelton hits one deep to the corner I said, “Lonnie Smith’s gonna score!” He gets deked, winds up on third and we can’t bring the run in.

But, the next year, 1992, game seven of the NLCS, the Pirates are up two-zip going to the bottom of the ninth. The Braves come up. They get one run back. Then there’s two outs. The bases are loaded and up comes Francisco Cabrera, who was the third string catcher. And I’m standing in the living room saying, “Come on, Frankie! Come on, Frankie!” On a two and one count, he slaps one past the short stop and out to Barry Bonds in left. The tying run comes in. Then Sid Bream, the slowest man in baseball, who was on second base, comes tearing down the basepath like a runaway locomotive and sliiiiiides. And if his foot was a half-inch shorter he would have been out. The ball comes. Their catcher, LeValier, tries to tag him. Sid’s foot touches the corner of the base. Braves win. Or as Skip Carey said, “Braves Win! Braves Win! Braves Win!”

I’m sitting in my living room and I think everybody in my neighborhood heard me go, “ALL RIGHT!” I woke my kid up. “What’s wrong, Daddy? What’s wrong?” I said, “The Braves won!” He said, “Oh.” He’s a big baseball fan, but he was also about three years old at the time and too tired to deal with it.

BC:
Were there in repercussions from your wife?

AR:
She said, “Do you have to yell so loud? The neighbors are going to hear you.” And I said, “But the Braves won! Sid Bream -- my man!” Francisco Cabrera could have run for Congress in Georgia and won. He could have. It was incredible.

BC:
Tell me about your artwork and why you do it.

AR:
Well I call this digitography. What I do is I take existing imagery and I manipulate them in the computer using Photoshop Elements. And what got me started doing it was, my son’s Bar Mitzvah a couple of years ago, my wife is into genealogy and she wanted to do a family tree. And we had all these old family photographs and I said, let me mess around with these in Photoshop. It turned out great.

About the same time, the PD was getting worse and I fell into depression, I had insomnia. I couldn’t focus for work. I was a writer and I was missing deadlines. I was up and I swore I would not stay up all night watching television. I was up and I was trying to write. And I was on the computer anyway, so I said let me see what will happen if I start to mess around with some of these photos. And that’s what happened. I started playing with photos and I do this and that, add them together and get “that”.

 

Boys of Summer book Entry #60

July 8, 2004 - Dad
Bronx, NY

Today is a very exciting day. We are due to hook up with Paulette and Annamaria. We decide to purchase a car top carrier to make more room inside a very crowded Explorer. We are packed and on the road by 10:30 after a very delicious breakfast at our hotel (the Penn's View Inn). This is my first experience driving in New York City. I have to say we have noticed a steady deterioration in the condition of the roads as we travel north and east. The combination of pot holes, narrow streets, fast traffic and my lack of local experience add up to an exciting ride.

We eventually find our way to Yankee Stadium and find a parking place on the street. Soon Paulette and Annamaria arrive via subway. It’s great to see them. We have lunch at a local pizza place and find out that there is a parking lot right next to Yankee Stadium for $10. One of the best values we have found.

A bottle of water inside Yankee Stadium is $4.50. Bob has arranged a tour of the park.  We met our guide, Matt Marino, (a cousin of quarterback, Dan Marino), at 4:30 and got an hour-long tour of the park, including Monument Park in center field and close up front row view of batting practice.

There is a huge press turnout with a majority of Japanese among them. They are there to cover Hedeki Matsui, (dubbed by some: “Godzilla”). We were about to shoot video of the tour but were reminded at least six times that video cameras are not allowed in the park. All the other parks to date have allowed cameras. The Yankees gave us the best tickets to date, right behind home plate in the top of the first section.  What a view! 

Bob:

Dad and I talked about the difference between feeling one is owed something versus graciously accepting that which comes forth naturally. Today was a long, yet wonderful day. We have seen and felt much.

The Blur of the day:

Traveling up New Jersey (after leaving a beautiful place in Philly) going by Princeton, getting to New York and having dad describe a scene on the Bronx streets as a “goat...” (propagation).

Seeing the beauty of Yankee Stadium. Standing on the street to hold a prime parking spot and getting it. Reuniting with Bella and mom. Going to the Yankee game. Calling and being disappointed by Stephen King’s departure from Boston just a day before we are going to be there! 

Getting the tour -- THE tour -- of Yankee Stadium. Watching BP. Having a beer amongst the masses at Stan’s Bar and Grill across the street from Yankee. Going to the game and sitting right behind home plate. Almost falling asleep during the game -- not because it was boring, but because I was wiped out. The game was great.

Mom:

Yankee Stadium was thrilling. It was like going someplace you’ve heard about all your life -- you see it on TV, you know it’s there, but it’s not the same as being there. Baseball history has been made there!

We got a very nice young man named Mike Marino (Dan Marino’s cousin) to be our ambassador at the park. We saw so much. It was fun listening to the Yankee fans. They are so diehard. It was great listening to the accents and the people talk to the guys. We had one of our former A’s players out there -- Jason Giambi. It was kind of interesting to watch him.

Dad:

We are finally back on the road to Boston at 11:30. Some friends of Bob’s friend, Brian Safine, have invited us to stay in their second home in Newton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, for the next two nights. The Bartons are out of town and will return on Friday afternoon.

Bob:

We got a great video of a guy playing “Take me out to the ball game” on the sax outside the park -- beautiful. The drive out of New York was dark, late night, with us jammed in the car with additional luggage, stressful, traffic-laden roads and our long trip to Boston.

We stopped at Kinko’s in Providence, Rhode Island at 2:30 AM to make sure we knew where we were going. We made our way to Newton, slowly but surely. We found the beauty of this home which is actually part of a converted elementary school. And now it is 5:?? AM and I am going to bed. Good morning.

Park Number Nine (of 30) Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees 7, Tampa Bay 1
 WP: J. Contreras (6-3)   LP: V. Zambrano (9-5) 

A’s lose AGAIN to Red Sox - *@&%! - 8-7