Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

What is something you really wanted as a child, that you finally got to do or buy for yourself as an adult?

I had a very good childhood. The Old Man was the only ‘breadwinner,’ but in 1980s suburbia—a time when a middle-class family could live comfortably on a single income—we did pretty well for ourselves. I never felt like we ‘went without,’ but even then, my parents knew when to draw the proverbial line.

Mother used to tell me, ‘Bend but never break,’ usually in reference to relationships, but I think the saying applies to many things in life. My point is that my parents likely went without at times for us kids, and they also knew exactly when to draw that proverbial line for us.

Traveling was one thing my family never did much of when I was young. Maybe if my parents told us “no” more often, we could have traveled more. I don’t think either of my grandparents did much traveling with Mother or The Old Man when they were young either. It’s possible that traveling was just not “born” into them.

As a kid, I never went to Disney World, let alone Florida. We never saw California or Washington DC. We did go to Cedar Point – the amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio – a few times. One year, we went down to Kentucky for a softball tournament my sister’s travel team had. But that was about the extent of my childhood travels.

Walt Disney World: the American Pilgrimage

A few years back I was teaching an excerpt from The Canterbury Tales to one of my high school classes. As an introductory activity, I asked students if there was anything that we have in 21st century America that we could compare to a pilgrimage. The majority of my students said “Disney world”.

I think that’s why it was so important for me to go to Disney World in college. Yes it may have been a little childish. After all, this was about a decade before Disney bought either Lucasfilm or Marvel. There wasn’t a lot there to appeal to a twenty-something year-old guy, except for satisfying my childhood curiosity.

Experiencing the national pastime on the American road

Perhaps even greater than my desire to travel is my desire to attend baseball games at all 30 MLB stadiums. As of today, I’ve attended games in 13 MLB ballparks (9 current, 4 inactive/demolished). There are 2 stadium I’ve toured, but not attended games in. This list doesn’t include Minor League, College, or independent league baseball games I’ve attended.

Again, this is something I didn’t do as a kid. X1 attended a game with me in Atlanta, while we were living in South Carolina. X2 made 1 trip with me to Cleveland. But for the most part, the other parks I’ve attended have been either alone or with Kid 2 – although Veronica seems to be 100% on board with attending others.

I think the main reason my “baseball road trips” are so important to me is because they have been, for the most part, something I’ve done entirely by myself. with the exception of the aforementioned cities, I’ve attended these games alone or with Kid 2, simply because it’s something that I’ve wanted to do.

I’ve been eyeing a three-park trip to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. Given the historic nature of all three cities, I’ll probably have to make it a full-fledged vacation—there’s simply too much I want to see beyond the ballparks. It’s the next great pilgrimage on my adult-life itinerary.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Even White People Get Ashy
• The Tricorder in My Pocket
• Challenger 40: The Generational Echo
• Take Kid 2 to Work Day: An Unexpected Win
• Strong Enough to Sob

AI art created with Google Gemini

The article “Finally, What I Went Without: Baseball, Disney, and the Adult Itinerary” first appeared in Rebuilding Rob.