Wham! There goes a car window

It was probably 1980 when I was covering American Legion baseball in Seneca, S.C. The Seneca Legion team played at a local elementary school, and everyone felt safe with their cars parked on the other side of the building.

They were playing under the lights, and a guy jacked a foul ball to his right. The ball bounced once on the roof of the school, and we heard "CRASH!" as the ball went through a windshield. About 200 people raced around the school, and most came back relieved. I heard one guy yell a one-word expletive while he was standing in the parking lot, and he was still cussing under his breath when he came back to the field.

When I went around the school after the game, I saw a red truck with a soccer-ball sized hole in the windshield. Expletive, indeed. I hope he was insured. He'd probably have to pay a deductible, though.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com.

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Good Samaritan

• The PRESS cap and my friend Mike

• Watching TV

• No luck with Billy Sims

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2015)

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing