The Wee Small Moments

The last time it was raining this hard at Modern Woodmen Park, CNN was bearing down on Davenport.  That was the morning of June 13, 2008.  The local record for rainfall in four hours was being set, steepening the Mississippi River flood crest also bearing down on us.  There was heroic work all across the city that torrential night.

Joe Akers, Doug Cook, Mike Rose, Chief Frese and I ended up at Modern Woodmen Park in the wee small hours.  An overnight public works crew was scheduled to fill in a levee gap, but they were scattered elsewhere as the creeks were overflowing.  The fivesome at the ballpark arrived more by kismet than plan.  Joe got there first, and when I saw him alone against the worst Mother Nature had ever thrown at us, I couldn’t leave.  It’s a true story – in a lightning flash I saw he was wearing a Wrigley Field t-shirt and took that as a sign from above.  We tossed bags for about two hours, barely keeping up, until Chief Frese arrived and secured reinforcements.      

Ignoring the constant lightning and water creeping past our knees, we ruined CNN’s money shot by lugging exhausting, soaked sandbags into the gap well past our bedtimes (well, at least mine).  Sunrise would at long last break over the Father of Waters and the City had stopped the ballpark from flooding for the first time since 1931.  Folks take our island ballpark for granted these days.  In 2008, it was uncertain and frightening work.

It makes a good story, and the stories were being told at the July 6 thank you party in the Champions Club at the ballpark as the rain came down in buckets.  The game was cancelled but the keg was tapped, so the party went on.  I wanted to say thank you to everyone who believed in Davenport through the years.  There were handshakes, hugs, pretzels and some spectacular cupcakes from Oh So Sweet.  I got a big glass jar of baseballs signed by many (very cool) and a framed picture of the out of sequence number 14 they humored me with as my parking lot number (more very cool).  It’s a charming and longer story when fully told, but … you know … Ernie Banks.   

To say Wundram stopped by hardly tells the story.  He did show up, but the whole story starts with throwing the clock in reverse, as is the custom in such affairs.  The landmine factory at 226 W. Fourth had one of its episodic blasts eight or so years ago, and that found me sitting at the curvy end of the Times’ editorial board conference table.  The guy who writes most of the left hand column was having a multi-media moment and asked if he could videotape the discussion.  I demurred by noting this wasn’t a game.  People’s lives were being impacted.  I told a personal story as an example.

Then, a moment of humanity.  Bill Wundram popped up and addressed how ridiculous the spectacle was by offering to do something human, personal, and decent for my family.  To say thank you isn’t hardly enough, and he’s been on the Christmas card list ever since.    

In some mid-story as the rain drummed down on the metal roof of the Champions Club, I see Bill walking down the suite level hall.  To say he is not a young man is an understatement.  Bill is walking slowly, aided with a cane.  I disengage from the story being told and go to meet him.  I’m gobsmaked that he is here.  The rain has kept some away – at least I hope it did – but the patriarch is here.    

Bill is soaked from the rain but in customary good cheer.  He thanks me for my belief in Davenport and I thank him for showing up, and for what he did that day at the editorial board meeting and for just being him.  We marvel a little at what the ballpark has become with Dave Heller and I tell Bill I’ll walk him back to his car.  I offer my hand for support and we tell cheerful stories all along the slow walk back to the elevator.  He keeps thanking me and I keep thanking him as we walk back out into the torrent to his car, barely shielded by two umbrellas that are not nearly up to the task.  Greg Lundgren helps and gets soaked too.    

To say Bill is not a young man is an understatement.  It is also wrong.  He most definitely is a young man.  He is young where it matters most – in spirit.  Thank you, Bill, for showing us the way. 

For all who attended the party and for all who didn’t but helped somewhere along the way, thank you, thank you, thank you.  It is your spirit that sustains this community.