Blog: My One Proud Moment

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Burt Ross

As we mature  (a euphemistic term for getting older), we have a tendency to look in the rear view mirror to see what our proudest moments have been. I would have titled this blog/column “My Proudest Moments,” but since I only have one, I went with the singular.

It happened when my daughter Kate was in the fourth grade, and fathers were invited to accompany their kids to class for the day. The teacher had arranged a quiz show and divided the contestants into two teams. I naturally was on my daughter’s team. 

The contest’s outcome came down to the final question which had to do with what famous lawless town in the “old west” had been home to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Everybody was stumped but yours truly. I would have been suffering from Alzheimer’s not to have known the answer. You see I had just finished reading “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry in which a lawless town is featured as the home for Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

I whispered the answer to Kate. She asked, “Are you certain Daddy?” and I responded, “As sure as I know you are my daughter.”

When one of her teammates wanted to go with another answer, Kate shot him down, “My Dad knows what he is talking about.” And so Dodge City was the winning answer.

As Kate’s team was pronounced the winning team, my daughter looked at me with such admiration that I decided to read other books by McMurtry. The fact is that in virtually 77 years on this Planet Earth, knowing the answer to that question is clearly my one proud moment.