As I was watching the second World Series game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers that was played at St. Louis, of course, I the Cardinal, was for the Cardinals.
I got a glimpse of that large and beautiful team of Clydesdale horses pulling the Budweiser wagon.
I thought, boy, would my dad, old Si Gill, be in hog heaven to be sitting with me watching the game and seeing some of those big horses once again.
My father was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan. Sad thing was, my dad never got to see a big league ball game and was not alive to even see one on television.
He loved to hear sportscaster Bob Elson, who broadcast the Cubs games on WGN radio.
He would sit with his ear glued to that radio station many times, as I remember.
I recall him telling about Gabby Hartnett and several others he really liked.
The other day in my pack-rat collection I found two of his old 1940 and 1941 books of players and records. It was a book put out by Old Gold cigarettes.
In looking at the book, I remember names like Pee Wee Reese, Phil Cavaretta, Hank Greenberg and Bob Feller.
Getting back to the Clydesdale horses, as a small boy my dad would take me to the horse barn at county fairs and if we happened to see a Clydesdale beauty, he would always tell me that when he was a young farm boy down near Anderson, Ind., he had a team of Clydesdales (he even told me the names, but I can’t recall what they were).
I’ve always enjoyed the Budweiser commercials on Christmas, and the music that went with them.
Our youngest son, Barry, who is an over-the-road semi truck driver out west a lot, called us once when he was getting fuel at a big truck stop and said there were four or five big Budweiser trucks parked there and the horse’s handlers had taken the Clydesdales out to exercise them.
You now what, I bet those semi trailers for the horses were really plush, air conditioning, etc.
All this little ditty came about to write because I saw the Clydesdale horses on the TV ball game.
In the paper in 1976, 35 years ago, state Sen. Charles Zollar, Benton Harbor, presented a framed resolution of the Michigan Senate citing exploits of the late Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe of Cassopolis as the first man to fly into space.
Accepting the tribute on behalf of the people of the famed flying ace’s home county was Cass County Clerk Kenneth Poe.
Capt. Kincheloe flew an experimental rocket plane, the X-2, into space on Sept. 7, 1956.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.