When I opened up the ice chest to reach for a cold bottle of water and found submerged in the cooler a ball cap and a pair of leather gloves, I knew two things — it is baseball season and it is summer time in the Miss-Lou.

Wednesday afternoon, my job was to stand guard over the ice chest in the Duncan Park dugout during one of my son’s practice T-ball games. With temperatures hovering into the mid 90s, the cooler was a popular spot — but not for a swig of water.

The 6- and 7-year-old sluggers were more interested in sucking on the chunks of ice in the cooler than they were the bottles of water. It didn’t take long for the players to start to scooping up handfuls of water and pouring it on their heads.

Obviously, the children were doing everything they could to cool down.

As a parent, my job was to keep the kids from playing in the cooler. So I sat on top of the lid and stared intently at the players who looked a little bit like I had taken away their last toy.

Just when I thought cooler patrol was under control, one of the players came up and asked for a drink.

As I opened the lid to reach for a bottle of water, staring back at me were a red ball cap and a pair of leather gloves doing the back stroke in the ice water.

“Whose ball cap and gloves is this?” I asked as I fished the soggy contents out of the cooler.

From the end of the bench, my son raised his hand sheepishly, trying to explain that a cold wet cap and a pair of iced-down gloves was his own way of keeping cool.

While I stared back with a stern look, I really wanted my own cap dipped in ice water. I wouldn’t have told my son, but I was impressed with his ingenuity.

I must admit when I signed up to be a summer league parent, I didn’t know it was going to be this hot.

Sitting and watching Gibson sweat it out on the diamond, I couldn’t keep one thought from running through my head.

“What happened to those hot summer weekends when you took a break from the sun, grabbed a tall glass of iced tea and retreated to a dark, air-conditioned corner of the house?” I thought.

There was no break Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon when we watched Gibson and his teammates play at the Vidalia recreation complex.

I knew it would be hot for my son standing out on the sun-drenched field. I guess I hadn’t considered it would be just as hot — or more so — for the parents watching from the stands.

My wife and I soon discovered that we were summer league rookies learning how to beat the heat the hard way.

With a chair and our own ice chest filled with cold drinks, I didn’t come totally prepared Saturday morning when my wife and I escorted our son into the Vidalia recreation complex.

We didn’t have a tent for shade and I forgot to put on sunblock for the day.

Two games and three and half-hours later, I discovered a new-found appreciation not just for the players on the field but also for the parents who follow their children to the ballfields to roast under the sun.

And when I later saw my son pull his ball cap out of the ice water, I was tempted to take it for myself.

 

Ben Hillyer is the news editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3540 or by e-mail at ben.hillyer@natchezdemocrat.com.