[Paul Penta]

Amid all the turmoil and hand wringing about the state of the boats, the company, et.al, I thought an amusing story might be appropriate.

Phil Westbrook, my best pal and now my boss, and I have a hobby here out on the river. We try to visit every professional baseball stadium within reach of the boat. Our schedule prohibits actually going to a game but we try to take tours, look through fences and the like.

This past turnover day we were in Pittsburgh, so the short walk to the new home of the Pirates, PNC Park, was in order. It was a Sunday and there was a home game scheduled, so no tours of the the park were available. However we decided, as un-American as it may sound, to get into the stadium by buying tickets to a game we would not be able to see.

A little research revealed that the least expensive ticket was $9 - a bargain when you consider we paid $10 to tour the new Busch Stadium in St Louis a couple of weeks ago. As we approached the ticket window, prepared to fork over our nine dollars, the ticket seller cheerfully informed us that it was "Senior Citizen Day" and sold us two tickets at $5 apiece!

I had to laugh, because this happens to me every once in awhile, and at 57, I do qualify in some cases where 55 is the required age.

But Phil was close to being apopleptic! "She didn't even ask for ID!", said my grey haired, 50 year old buddy. He just couldn't believe it. He had just had his first brush with the "Senior" tag and it threw him for a second. I had to quiet him down, lest we lose the discount. "Do you WANT to pay more?", I asked, "Because I can arrange it".

Well we got in, went to our seats, which offered us a panorama of this very beautiful venue. We were in Section 307, Row R.

That's right, row "R".

By the time he realized the location of our seats, Phil's normal good humor had returned. He stood up, covered his left eye with a make believe eye patch, waved the rubber sword he bought at the gift shop and proclaimed in his best "pirate" voice that we were in the Pirate's house and sitting in row "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

Say it out loud a couple of times - it will make more sense - you had to be there.

Paul