Killer singles hitter: One-Eyed NB

Our family had a reunion at a 4-H camp a couple of weekends ago. It’s been a number of years since we had one because of the many family weddings we’ve had lately. Mostly we did what people do at reunions—eat and yak.      

On Friday morning some of us were talking about the 828 blog—myself, my two sisters, Linda and Nancy, and my brother George and his wife, Muffy, our first guest blogger. We were talking about Obstacle Park, the last blog post about our playing whiffle ball in the backyard. Since Nancy (N or NB) was there, I quickly realized that I had left out an important piece of Kerber whiffle ball lore: Nancy had a unique batting stance that was long remembered in our family. I said I would rectify this by posting a comment to the 828 blog, as a sort of an addendum.

Batting right-handed, N used only one hand to grip the bat as she faced the pitcher straight on. She stood more like she was playing tennis rather than whiffle ball. She was a good hitter too, not hitting (m)any home runs but she did get a lot of singles and some doubles. She hit mostly ground balls, but being quick, she often beat out the throw to first.

Linda asked, “You know why she stood like that, don’t you?” There were ‘Nopes’ all around. “She swung that way because she had to face the pitcher square on to see the pitch. She’s practically blind in her left eye.”

Now it was ‘What!?’ all around. None of us knew that Nancy, who we thought we knew well, was one-eyed.


Why would you put a patch on this face?

Later that night around the campfire, I asked the rest of our siblings if they knew that N could see only out of her right eye. (She can detect movement and shapes with her bad eye.) Besides Linda, only Alan knew.

Then someone asked, “NB, Didn’t you wear an eye patch in high school?” All us boys remembered the patch, but we didn’t know that she couldn’t see out of her left eye.



Is this the face of a cheater?

In grade school she remembers cheating on the eye exam by peeking through her fingers. Tests were something she was expected to pass, and she did. By high school, someone somehow figured out that she had Amblyopia (lazy eye), and she wore a patch that was suppose to force her to use her bad eye. Of course, being of that ‘fit in’ high school age, she hated it. Alas, by tenth grade it was too late – you can’t teach old muscles new tricks.

This seems like an important fact for us Kerber boys not to have realized her problem at the time - a big deal. It suggests that we saw only the surface but not the interior. Were we just uncurious as to why she was wearing an eye patch? Did we think that the patch was cool and that was enough for us? As kids we really did see only N’s surface; as we became older, it was a pleasure getting to know her more deeply. (It has been a pleasure getting to know all my sibs more deeply.)

At times when I’m slip into my “If Only” game, I say things like, “If only I were born in an age when people questioned authority more easily, then I wouldn’t…” Thinking of N’s eye, I say, “If only someone would have caught the problem when it could have been corrected.” But I also think, “If only Nancy could have been born in a cooler age, maybe she’d have had better choices in eye patches.

 --Bob