My Father's Trip to Boston

This post has nothing to do with the Tigers or Baseball, but I found this story kind of amusing on a day when not much funny is happening in Massachusetts.  

My soon to be 89-year old father got up this morning for a hearing aid appointment at the Veteran's Administration in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston.  His television was not working, so he initially was totally oblivious that the whole area was was in lock down.  So, he got in his car expecting to experience the usual traffic nightmare on the way to the city.

He was surprised to find that there was very little traffic on Route 128, a circumstance about as common as a Cecil Fielder stolen base.  He flipped on the radio and discovered that there was a manhunt going on and that people were being strongly advised to stay off the roads, but he kept going.  There were enough cars on the road where he felt it was OK to keep moving and he's a little hard of hearing, so he was probably not totally aware of everything that was happening.  Or maybe it's because, as an 89-year old former front lines soldier in World War II, he tends not to let people tell him what to do.

He next found that Route 9, a virtual parking lot most mornings, was almost abandoned going through Newton and Brookline.  There were no roadblocks or anything though, so he kept on going until he reached the VA building.

While this was going on, the VA had called my mother to tell her to call my dad and tell him to skip his appointment and go home.  They said if he entered the building, they wouldn't be able to let him out.  Since my father does not have a cell phone, there was no way to reach him and it probably would not have mattered anyway.  He would have kept moving forward.

Anyway, my father parked his car and approached the door of the VA.  He was stopped by a police officer asking for identification.  My dad showed his driver's license, but they wanted his GI Identification.  Getting a little irritated at that point, he told him he didn't have one and didn't have anything like that for years.

Next, the police man wanted to see his license plate.  When he saw that it was a Army Veteran's Bronze Star license plate, he saluted my father and ushered him in the building.  So, my father was able to have his test and I think they were happy to see him since most people had cancelled their appointments.

As it turned out, they didn't make him stay there after the test.  Or maybe he took his hearing aids out and couldn't hear them.  Emboldened even more by the salute, nobody was going to stop him anyhow.

The important thing is he made it home safe and sound.