{"id":1011,"date":"2024-07-15T01:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T01:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2024-05-05T14:37:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T14:37:37","slug":"kieran-maxines-stagstagette-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=1011","title":{"rendered":"Kieran & Maxine’s Stag\/Stagette Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Kieran & Max\u2019s Stag\/Stagette Party<\/span>  [Into Extra Innings]<\/p>\n

\"Pres.<\/a>

Pres. Taft at the ballpark<\/p><\/div>\n

At every nine inning baseball game (high schoolers and Little Leaguers and softballers only play seven innings), all the fans stand up and stretch and sing \u201cTake Me Out to the Ballpark<\/i>.\u201d  I\u2019ve never been to a nine inning game where this didn\u2019t happen \u2013 it\u2019s a rock solid baseball tradition that goes back to President Taft days.  Legend has it that our overweight President was in attendance and just after the conclusion of the top of the 7th<\/sup> decided he needed to stretch.  When he stood up all the fans in attendance stood too, and ever since there\u2019s been a 7th<\/sup> Inning stretch in the middle of the 7th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Believing that some of you baseball fans never want the game to end, let’s go to extra innings.  Let me tell you about Kieran & Max\u2019s Stag\/Stagette Party\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026 Kieran & Maxine are a couple of the lifelong friends I\u2019ve met through baseball.  Kieran has been the shortstop on our Bluebirds team since 1980.   2023 will be his 43rd straight season \u2013 Minnie Minosoesque.  For the first 25 years I played behind him in the outfield, but I\u2019ve slowed down lately and no longer have the arm I once had, so now I play first base.<\/p>\n

Maxine went to Southwest State with Jane (Minton) and Dave, who were already friends from growing up in Belle Plain.  Shortly after college, Dave fell in with an Irish Dancing \u2013 Celli crowd and moved into a duplex in St. Paul known for its progressive politics and, in particular, its stance on the IRA.   Soon Jane and Max moved into the other half.   By the time I arrived on the scene (from law school out east) there were three single men living on Dave\u2019s side and three single women living on Jane\u2019s side, all with the kind of politics I was hoping to find upon returning to Minnesota – especially the ballplaying \/ \u201cif I can\u2019t dance, I won\u2019t join your revolution\u201d kind of politics.  (For how I got in touch with this group, read the story \u201cRiff Raff Freight Hopping<\/i>.\u201d)<\/p>\n

At any rate, Maxine went to an Irish dance with Jane, met Kieran, and this led to Kieran (a ballplayer) meeting Dave (also a ballplayer) and the rest is history – except the party we had at the duplex in honor of Max\u2019s saying yes to Kieran\u2019s marriage proposal.  From the get-go there was no way this would just be a stag party for men only.  We loved having women around and we were all for equality.  And on the women\u2019s side they certainly believed they were the equal of us.  So it was a Stag\/Stagette Party (although that\u2019s not what we called it then \u2013 it was only after the men acted a lot like it was a stag party that it\u2019s been referred to as such).<\/p>\n

Jane & Maxine invited all their friends and Dave & Kieran invited all their friends.  When a poker game started up on Dave\u2019s side (happened to be only men), the non-players began to drift to Jane\u2019s side.  A little later Jane came over and complained it was starting to look too much like \u201cthe women gathering in the kitchen\u201d type of a party \u2013 \u201cCome on you guys, let\u2019s have some fun together.\u201d  This prompted one of the poker players (who shall remain anonymous) to suggest (after Jane left):  \u201cHey Guys, let\u2019s take all our clothes off and play naked for the next time they show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we did this, some of Kieran\u2019s friends just plain cleared out \u2013 not just going over to Jane\u2019s side, but leaving the party altogether.  The poker game continued intact; all of us acting as if we were dressed normally.  The next time Jane came over to check on us, she couldn\u2019t believe her eyes! And dashed back to the other side to spread the word.  Quite a few party-goers of both sexes came over to witness the scene for themselves.  Soon we put our clothes back on and everybody started dancing.<\/p>\n

#####################<\/h6>\n

END OF GROWING UP – sorry folks, that’s it for daily doses – THANKS for being readers.<\/p>\n

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  Kieran & Max\u2019s Stag\/Stagette Party  [Into Extra Innings] At every nine inning baseball game (high schoolers and Little Leaguers and softballers only play seven innings), all the fans stand up and stretch and sing \u201cTake Me Out to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}