These past two weeks have been very special to me. Her daughter Alex gave birth to my girlfriend's fourth grandchild and first grandchild. I'm not going to lie, I was in a cage until I finally gave birth a week past my due date.
No matter how old your children are, they are your children and you protect them. My father drilled into my brain that real men love their families and work hard to provide for them, and I never forgot that. Oh, and I think women do too, of course, but remember, this was in her 50s and her 60s, when there was an emphasis on men being strong and showing no fear.
And last week, I celebrated my 72nd birthday. When I was a kid, anything over 50 felt old. Neither of my grandparents came close to that age. Thankfully, now, with plenty of self-care and some luck, 70's can still look quite young. Well, maybe some young people are overdoing it, but thankfully I'm feeling good at the moment.
For some reason, at this stage we tend to look back, but not necessarily at the big events. I mean, we've all been through marriages, divorces, the birth of children, career milestones, etc., but the little things seem to have just as big an impact. When I stop and take in the memories of the “small things” I literally feel my heart smile. I think it's supposed to be good for you physically, but I'm sure it's a great medicine for your mental health.
Last week, my granddaughter asked me, “Did Papa T chew gum when he was little like me?” I moved on to the old man's story. Did I chew gum? I want to talk about a little memory that makes my heart smile and that is when I opened a pack of Tops bubble gum with a scent that “puts you in a trance”. Not to take anything away from my other favorites: Beeman's, Wrigley's Juicy Fruit, and Beech-Nut Fruit Striped Gum.
Inside the neatly wrapped package was a piece of gum heaven. A beautiful, flat, delicious treasure dusted with powdered sugar. Best of all, underneath this chewable utopia was one of his greatest inventions of all time: the baseball card. It's hard to explain what baseball cards meant to me at that stage in my life.
It was the magic of cardboard with life-sized pictures of people on it. Back then, before cell phones, we seemed to have too much time on our hands. As a kid, I remember sitting on the practice field for hours reading everything about each player. I studied photos of these heroes and learned where their careers began, what their batting averages were, and where they were born. Boy did they impress me with their big, confident smiles.
When we're talking about spring memories, one thing I definitely remember is the amount of sugar I ingested at Easter. As a child, I never met an Easter candy that I didn't like. Hollow eggs, peanut butter eggs, coconut eggs, and jelly beans, of which about 10 million have been consumed. To this day, I have no interest in jelly beans. You could call it a youthful jelly bean overdose.
Another thing I remember about Easter is that we had to dress up to fulfill our Easter duties. From what I remember, if I didn't go to church on Easter, I would have been left out of the team. You no longer need the Catholic Church. My mother had gathered at least five of her seven children into the car. We were crammed into the back seats with no seatbelts and headed to the gorgeous Cathedral of St. Catherine. In the 1950s, seat belts weren't very common, and for that matter, cars weren't very safe.
So, back to the starting point. I looked back at my daughters and grandchildren and decided that the greatest gift I can give you is happiness and confidence. We understand that encouraging discipline and education is important for future success. I also think that people who were encouraged by their parents and grew up with a certain level of happiness and self-confidence tend to be successful.
So I want to take the time to tell my grandchildren how smart they are, how talented they are, how amazing they are. I leave the discipline to my daughters. After all, at this age, I have earned the right to be Mr. Positive.
The more I think about it, maybe that's true for the entire Lehigh Valley. Let's face it, it's hard to maintain self-esteem in this crazy-paced world. Everyone seems to have an opinion, most of which aren't very positive.
So don't buy it, Lehigh Valley, you know where we're coming from. You know what we've been through. As you know, getting us here today took time and it wasn't easy.
You did it with relentless persistence, but when the industrial revolution came to a screeching halt, we were brought to our knees. But we rose, we built our cities back, we diversified our economies, we loved our neighbors, and we came back stronger.
I will be with you every step of the way to continue this chargeback. It may take us a little longer to stop and smell the roses, but we are committed to working with young leaders in our community. I hope that future community builders have the same tenacity and grit that past generations have shown. As a joke, they were made of steel.
Tony Iannelli is president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at tonyi@lehighvalleychamber.org.
