42

Forgive me those of you who are not Guthries and don't know the legend of 42. It was my dad's class year at Princeton and of course his favorite number. He used it for everything. Passwords. License plates. Everything.

Since he died the number 42 has just been popping up in places to check in on us. Not long after his passing last Memorial Day, I went to play golf and noticed I happened to be in Cart 42. When we played in a tournament at Inverness, Dick was marshalling and I looked over and Dick was in Cart 42. Didn't select it; just a coincidence. I won't impose on you the many examples, but this keeps happening over and over again.

Anyway, my dad was very happy in Hawaii. We had great times here in 1961-1965 and 1973 - 1975. I also had the good fortune to come with my dad several times during the early 1990s when we worked together on some NFL events: Quarterback Challenge and Battle of the Gridiron.

When I landed here on this trip, the first time back here since he died, I felt his presence and I had a strong wistful feeling. Many memories flooded my mind. It felt heavy.

Our first morning in Hawaii, after the walk on the beach, we decided to go over to Leonard's for malasadas. Here in Hawaii they still have newspaperboys at stoplights selling the paper. As we made the turn on Kapahulu, the first newspaperboy we saw was this one. I screamed to Sari and the kids: "Look! Look!" I had to jump out of the car to take a picture.




Note the colors. Fo' real, as they would say here.




Ok, so maybe you say it is just that we are noticing things we would normally not notice. Here's one that fits that description. Jeffers and I saw it as we walked over to Waikiki to go bodyboarding.














Then, not 5 minutes later, we rented a bodyboard for Jeffers. He went over and grabbed one without paying attention to which one. As we signed the paperwork to take it out, "what number is it?" We took a look. You know the answer. Look closely; it's right there on the lower right of the board.

I am not making this up.















Ok, they're just coincidences. Right? Feel free to think whatever you want, I am going with the belief that he is here with us.