Looking forward, looking back

   Tonight we enter the new year via January, named for Janus, a Roman god with two faces: one looking forward to the new year, one looking back at the year past.

   I suppose our emphasis should be on the future. But reflecting on the past can have its pleasant moments. Not only by reflecting on what did happen, but on situations that might have been. 

   I think we all have some “what if” situations that we like to fantasize about. The movie “Sliding Doors” presents parallel versions of what did and what might have happened in a woman’s life, hinging on whether or not she caught her train. I know I have several stories of my own, but none are as dramatic as the great “what if” in my Uncle Cokey’s life.

   When Uncle Cokey was 16 years old and in the sixth grade – according to my mother – he was the greatest baseball player in southern Pennsylvania. He was so good in fact that a scout from the Pittsburgh Pirates came knocking on the door wanting to sign him up.

   Uncle Cokey would have gone in a heartbeat. Heaven knows, he wasn’t much interested in hanging around and trying to get to the seventh grade. But, oh no! Becoming a Pirate just wasn’t about to happen. Since he was underage, his parents would have had to sign for him, and they refused.

   “What? Play baseball?” they said. “You need to get a good job in the coal mine. 

   A steady job. You need to be able to earn a good living.”

   So, without even making it to the seventh grade, Uncle Cokey went off to the coal mine, then soon made a trip to the altar. By the time he was old enough to go pro, he was strapped with a family and not about to take off for the unknown. But he made a decent living. He always seemed happy. And for years he was still quite a celebrity on the hometown team.

   But I sometimes wonder. What if he’d somehow talked his parents into signing for him? What would it have been like for me to be the niece of “The Other Babe Ruth?” Would they have made a movie about Uncle Cokey? Would Mickey Rooney have played the leading role for this man whose hairline was at my eye level? Would I have been portrayed in the movie? And who would have played me?

   OK, I know. It sounds like I have too much time on my hands. But I know some of you have “what ifs” that you think about, too. So as we approach the new year, while you’re thinking back on your memories that might have been, e-mail them to me. And I’ll be looking forward to writing about them.

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