温馨夜读II PART2 14.The All-Leather, NFL Regulation, 1963 Chicago Bears-Inscribed Football

 

[00:00.29]14.The All-Leather, NFL Regulation, 1963 Chicago Bears-Inscribed Football

[00:09.34]The year was 1964. The place was Chicago. 

[00:13.58]A man I worked with had acquired a couple of all-leather, NFL regulation, 

[00:18.81]1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed footballs and was selling them at a real good price. 

[00:25.23]My first son was on the way. 

[00:27.95]I bought the football, as my son’s “coming home from the hospital” gift, and it was truly special.

[00:34.05]Several years later, young Tom was rummaging¹ around in the garage when he came across the all-leather, 

[00:40.48]NFL regulation, 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed football. 

[00:45.16]He asked if he could play with it. 

[00:47.51]With as much logic² as I felt he could understand, 

[00:50.34]I explained to him that he was still a bit too young to play carefully with such a special ball. 

[00:55.79]We had the same conversation several more times in the next few months, and soon the requests faded away.

[01:02.11]The next fall, after watching a football game on television, 

[01:06.13]Tom asked, “Dad, remember that football you have in the garage? 

[01:10.48]Can I use it to play with the guys now?”

[01:13.00]Eyes rolling up in my head, I replied, “Tom, you don’t understand. 

[01:17.78]You don’t just go out and casually³ throw around an all-leather, NFL regulation, 1963 Chicago bears-inscribed football. 

[01:27.04]I told you before; it’s special.”

[01:29.11]Eventually Tom stopped asking altogether. 

[01:33.14]But he did remember, and a few years later he told his younger brother, Dave, 

[01:37.82]about that special football kept somewhere in the garage. 

[01:41.08]Dave came to me one day and asked if he could take that special football and throw it around for a while. 

[01:46.86]It seemed like I’d been through this before, but I patiently explained, once again, 

[01:52.96]that you just don’t go out and throw around an all-leather, NFL regulation, 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed football.

[02:02.54]But it wasn’t special anymore.

[02:05.37]I stood alone in the garage. 

[02:07.65]The boys had long since moved away from home, and suddenly I realized that the football had never been so special at all. 

[02:15.06]Children playing with it when it was their time to play is what would have made it special. 

[02:20.83]I had blown those precious, present moments that can never be reclaimed⁴, and I had saved a football. For what?

[02:28.90]I took the football across the street and gave it to a family with young kids. 

[02:33.61]A couple of hours later I looked out the window. 

[02:37.11]They were throwing, catching⁵, kicking and letting skid⁶ across the cement⁷ my all-leather, 

[02:44.87]NFL regulation, 1963 Chicago Bears-inscribed football.

[02:49.47]Now it was special!

1 rummaging   

翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查

参考例句：

• She was rummaging around in her bag for her keys. 她在自己的包里翻来翻去找钥匙。
• Who's been rummaging through my papers? 谁乱翻我的文件来着？

2 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

3 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

4 reclaimed   

adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救

参考例句：

• Many sufferers have been reclaimed from a dependence on alcohol. 许多嗜酒成癖的受害者已经被挽救过来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They reclaimed him from his evil ways. 他们把他从邪恶中挽救出来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 skid   

v.打滑 n.滑向一侧；滑道 ，滑轨

参考例句：

• He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车，使得前轮打了滑。
• The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹，以判断汽车当时开得有多快。

7 cement   

n.水泥；胶结材料；vt.粘结；巩固

参考例句：

• We need 100 tons of cement at most for this project.这项工程满打满算有一百吨水泥就足够了。
• Let's cement the parts together.咱们来把这些部件粘接在一起吧。