By the time Gerry began sponsoring the city kids baseball league, his first born child, Geraldine, was in elementary school.
It seemed like she had just been born a few weeks ago in his eyes! Elementary school was a whole new ball game, and Gerry sometimes worried about his little girl.
In first grade, Geraldine came home one day and asked her dad what he did for a job. As a heating and cooling professional, he was proud of what he did, but he also knew that a lot of the dads of Geraldine’s friends had more prestigious jobs than HVAC guy. Melanie’s dad was an attorney. Michelle’s dad was an accountant. So, Gerry was worried that Geraldine would not be proud of him when he told her he was a heating and cooling serviceman. That was ridiculous, of course. All kids love what their fathers do because they love their fathers. Anyway, Geraldine asked what heating and cooling was, and Gerry brought her over to the a/c air vent and let her feel the air conditioning blowing out. She looked at him with the biggest, brightest blue eyes and declared, “You make the air cold in summer and hot in winter?” When he said yes, that is what HVAC guys do, she jumped up and down with glee. She begged him to please come to career day at school and tell all the kids about being “the a/c guy.” He was so surprised by Feraldine’s reaction, and he promised to call her teacher the next day. The teacher was specifically looking for trades people such as heating and cooling guys, so it was all arranged.