A Sticky Situation!

  You hear the story all the time.
  "My Mom threw out all my baseball cards."
  Well, in my case, it didn't happen. I still have
a handful of my favorite baseball cards.
   And yesterday, for the first time in 55 years,
I got a good look at them! Even the stats on
the back!
   Let's go back to 1957.
   I was, in fact I remain, a very big New York
Yankee fan. The team, as I've said before, was
the first I ever got to see in person when my
Dad took me to Yankee Stadium when I was
just a kid. It was so long ago we could afford
to buy hot dogs, pop corn, and soda and still
get change!
   Back in those days the team had some players
whose names are legend in Baseball History.
   Yogi Berra. Billy Martin. Whitey Ford. And,
of course, Number 7, Mickey Mantle!
   I liked bubble gum as much as baseball so,
every so often I'd head for my neighborhood
candy store and pick up a fresh pack of Topps
Gum which came complete with several
Baseball Cards. Of course, to be perfectly
honest, the gum wasn't always all that "fresh!"
   Anyhow my gum purchases that year
produced a whole lot of Baseball Cards
including a few of my favorite Yankee players.
   One day I decided it would be nice to have
some sort of display for those few cards I
really liked.
    I used my art talent as a 15-year-old to design
my own cover and then proceeded to GLUE those
cards into my home made scrap book.
    Who could have guessed, back then, that glue
does not significantly add to the value of a
"collectible.?
    Fast forward to yesterday when I received
an elaborate Sports Auction Catalog in the mail.
    The suggested value of some of the cards
being offered had me reminiscing about my
old "Yankee" scrapbook.
    My wife dug it out to show my grandson
then wondered, out loud, if any attempt had ever
been made to dislodge the cards from the
pages whereon they had been imprisoned in
1957.  I doubted if that were possible.
    My wife then asked if I would allow her to
try with one of the cards I considered to be of
lesser value.
    I said yes then watched as she went to work
with her steam iron and successfully freed the
test card with no apparent damage what so ever!
    A half hour and a lot of steam later the cards
have all been released from their "Elmer's
straight jackets!"
    I can read the backs again and recall the
days when Whitey was the "Chairman of the
Board"  and  Mickey was hitting home runs
that still hold the long distance records!
    I'm not sure what I'll do with them now.
    No more glue! That's for sure.
   Maybe I'll pin them to the wall.
   Better ask my wife!
   Hope your cards survived your bicycle
wheels and that all your NEWS is good.