I moved to River Falls, Wisconsin, with my husband, daughter and two sons in the fall of 1951.  My sons, Douglas and Bruce were ages 4 and 7 respectively.  Soon after, my boys became interested in collecting baseball cards.  I would buy them packs of gum with cards, and confiscate the gum. 

         Each of them had a favorite team.  Bruce favored the Milwaukee Braves and Doug the Dodgers.  They were particularly interested in collecting cards from those teams.  Discussion between the boys was very intense about the merits of their teams.  I decided to get in on the act so I chose the then lowest team in the opposite league which happened to be the Washington Senators. 

         As luck would have it, the Washington Senators moved to the Twin Cities soon after.  Now they were near enough that we got to go to many of their games to see “Mother’s Boys” play ball.  One of the outstanding players on this team at this time was Bob Allison. Coincidentally, two of my brothers are named Bob and Allison.

         At this point I began to actually take some interest in the game of baseball and appreciate the skill that was demonstrated by individual players.  I remember with some chagrin that the first—and only the first—time I went to a baseball game with the male members of my family I took along a book to read.   

         When the Twins won the World Series in 1991 I kept the entire daily paper that proclaimed this victory as well as purchasing the Wheaties box featuring two members of “My Team.” Last year while sorting through an entire household of 50 years’ accumulation of trivia and treasures, trying to downsize into a small 2 bedroom apartment, I refused to let my daughter dispose of these valuable possessions.  They are still with me to this day!  In fact, if my daughter calls me on an evening between April and October, there is a good chance I am watching “My Boys” on TV.

Written June, 2003