The 118 Year Old Uniform

FatherBlog turned 88 yesterday. 

For the occasion, TigerBlog took him to the diner that his father loves. What else would you do when you turn 88? 

He even got the usual, which for him is sunnyside eggs, breakfast potatoes, an English muffin with jelly, toast with butter, tomato juice and coffee. Apparently if you eat that at a diner in North Jersey four or five days a week for 40 or so years, you'll live well into your 80s.

The woman whose family owns the place, whom FatherBlog has known forever, gave him a cannoli with a candle in it while the staff sang "happy birthday." She, by the way, is a classic North Jersey diner hostess, meaning she loves to talk to everyone who comes in, especially the regulars. When TigerBlog said it was his father's birthday, she said "how old are you?" When FB said to guess, she said "108?" 

You had to be there. It was sweet.

Of course, FB received the usual number of birthday calls. His hearing is awful, so the ringer on his phone is as loud as it can be. Also, he tends to speak loudly, so there he was in the diner, answering his really loud ringer with a bellowed "Hello," followed by an explanation that he and his son were in the diner eating and he'd have to get back to them.

Each time it rang, TB suggested he let it go and get back to the person. Each time, he picked it up with his "Hello." It took about five such calls for the people at the other tables to go from mildly annoyed to amused. 

As for TB, he went with "mortified," which gave way to a sigh of inevitability. But hey, FatherBlog is 88, retired, self-sufficient and able to do pretty much anything he'd like, with the exceptions of hearing and driving. He even has a cruise in the Caribbean scheduled for this coming winter. 

After breakfast, TB drove his father on some errands. At the last stop, as he waited in the parking lot, he saw his father come out of the store, walk up to the car and open the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't TigerBlog's car. It wasn't even a car that looked like TB's.

"I got in the wrong car," FatherBlog said with a laugh.
"What did the woman whose car it is say?" TB said without a laugh.
"She said that she's not going to press charges," FB said, again with a laugh.

After driving him on his errands, TigerBlog dropped his dad back at his house and then drove back to Princeton. Waiting for him here was a package from a woman named Adelaide Ferguson. A few weeks ago, she had sent this note to TB:

I am writing to ask whether you might be interested the donation of  the Princeton baseball uniform of my grandfather, Charles P Henry. I believe he graduated in 1905, which makes it about 120 years old. The uniform is completely intact and in good condition , with top, pants, striped  socks, a funny little hat unlike today’s baseball hats  and a sweater. It has his name tag inside.

Inside the box was a sealed plastic bag, one that had the uniform. Adelaide was right. The entire uniform was intact, and it was in amazing condition.

TigerBlog immediately showed it to equipment gurus Derek Griesdorn and Nicole D'Andrea, which was like showing TigerBlog a 1905 newspaper that was in great shape. 

The general consensus was that the uniform itself was very heavy and must have been very hot to wear. The look of it, though, was a bit mesmerizing. The idea that it was worn in baseball games that long ago is amazing.

Baseball was Princeton's very first varsity sport, debuting on Nov. 22, 1864. Charles Henry would have played for the great Bill Clarke, whose 564 wins are still the most by a Princeton coach — 120 more than Scott Bradley, who is in second place. 

Henry was the leftfielder on the 1905 team, which went 24-8, with one of those losses was a 4-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Pirates and another a 14-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles (at the time an Eastern League team). Princeton defeated Amherst 1-0 in 18 innings in a game where both teams used one pitcher each; Princeton's Don Doyle didn't walk a batter in his 18 innings while striking out 12. 

To get to Cornell to play, Princeton took two trains, first going to Newark and then taking an overnight train to Ithaca. Total time of the trip: 16 hours. 

Charles Henry went from Princeton to Penn for medical school, and he also played baseball for the Quakers, something that is rather unimaginable these days. He went on to a career as a surgeon in the Reading, Pa., area. 

He married a woman named Adelaide and had three children, Daniel, Joan and Charles. Adelaide Ferguson, Charles' granddaughter, is now a lawyer.

FatherBlog is now 88. The uniform was last used 30 years before he was born. 

It was good to see both of them yesterday.