Forget bracket but catch ‘The Diary of Anne Frank'
My bracket officially is dead, my son is too old to be hugged and I'm pumped for the upcoming play Forest City High School students will perform. In a nutshell, that about sums up this week with Bob Fenske.
START WITH THE bracket. For those who despise college basketball and March Madness and all that, you may skip this portion of the column.
But for those who live for March - you know who you are, you're the ones that called in sick last Thursday or Friday, or at the very least took some very, very long lunches - filling out a NCAA basketball bracket is, pardon the cliché, the cat's meow.
This marks the first year that I didn't get into an office pool, which says more about my finances than it does about my love of hoops. But I still filled out a bracket just for old time's sake.
To be honest, I figured this would be the year I nailed the tournament. Hey, that would be my luck. I wouldn't get into the pool, I'd win going away and watch someone else pocket my money.
Well, after the first weekend of the tournament, I can look at it a different way: I just saved five clams.
I have seven of the 16 teams left, and my Final Four is shot. Hey, the team I have winning it all, North Carolina, is still in the hunt, but after that ... well let's just say my winless streak dating back to 1989 would have continued, and with a flourish, too.
Still, I still have a chance to beat our ad guy, Stephen Benitz, in our pool. It may not be about money, but it's all about pride.
MY OLDEST SON, Josh, turned 9 on Monday.
I tried to give him a hard time and tell him he couldn't open his presents until 8:42 p.m., his birth time, but he didn't go for it; instead, he was up at 6:45 a.m. ready to go.
When I get home tonight, we'll make pizza and eat cake, but he opened his presents this morning. He liked his presents, but his favorite very well could have been the cheapest - a Brett-and-Tyler-Putz-autographed basketball. That's what he wanted (along with his self-described Jake Kurtzleben haircut, he's got 60 percent of the Indians' starting lineup covered), and for some reason, it reminds me of the reason we wanted to live in a small city like Forest City.
Josh is the ultimate tag-along kid. He loves going to games and other events I get to cover, and over the past four-plus years, those Forest City High School and Waldorf College students - be them athletes or dramatists or anything in between - have made both my kids' day by just saying a “hi, how are you doing.”
But my favorite part of the day was going to lunch with him, and yet, it was also the part of the day that brought a twinge of sadness to me. After making a “happy plate,” I told Josh I had to get back to work.
“Can I give you a hug on your birthday?”
The stare I got was enough of a reply to know that my little Joshie isn't so little anymore.
THE FIRST TIME I saw “The Diary of Anne Frank” was when I was Josh's age.
I went to a K-12 school, and the high school drama department's dress rehearsal was always performed in front of the elementary school student body.
It was a powerful moment in my life. I can still vividly remember how that production ended with each member of the “Secret Annex” standing in front of a giant Nazi flag as a deep, booming voice told the audience of what happened to them after they were captured.
More than 30 years later, I've seen “The Diary of Anne Frank” probably a dozen times, and each time, I look forward to seeing it again. The same goes for Forest City High School's production of the play that will be performed on Friday and Saturday, April 4-5.
Forest City's spring plays don't usually draw the kind of crowds that its fall musicals do. I hope that changes this year. This is a story that we must see.
Yes, there's the whole “those-who-don't-know-history-are-doomed-to-repeat-it” thing, but what has always gotten to me about this play is there's a message of hope in it.
More than two years after going into hiding, Anne Frank still believed in the goodness of people. Less than a year later, she would be dead, but six decades later, that hope in humankind persists.
And that makes this play worth seeing.
Bob Fenske is the editor of the Forest City Summit. He can be reached by phone at 585-2112 or by e-mail at editor@forestcitysummit.com.
Story created Mar 25, 2008 - 09:22:29 CDT.
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