"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” — The Mad Hatter - Lewis Carroll -(Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass)

I have some work to do this week – writing-wise I mean. I was all but shattered when I saw that my column, The Way I See It, which debuted on the Foxborough Patch website this past Tuesday was the third most viewed, finishing behind an article about where to go to dinner on Valentine’s Day and a recipe for Chocolate Ganache Truffles.

Food! I was beaten out by food! As a serious journalist, I would never stoop so low as to write about food! I mean who does that anyway? Good grief! Food?

So, a bunch of us went out to eat at Saraceno’s in the North End of Boston last Friday night. My daughter-in-law’s mom was here from California for a visit. Good timing, huh? I mean, seriously; who visits Massachusetts in February? Especially, this February! No, she’s not a Valley Girl! Actually, she came because it was Karre’s birthday – Karre being her daughter, my daughter-in-law.

So Sandy, my son Chris and his wife; that would be Karre, and my wife and I went to Saraceno’s for dinner. The food was fabulous! I would highly recommend the Zuppa di pesce, a cioppino with little necks, mussels, squid, shrimp, lobster, & scallops. Magnifico!

 I had a side of linguini and a glass of Chianti with my meal. Yes, I had red wine with seafood. You got a problem with that? What are you, some kind of wine snob?

 You do realize that I’m only telling this story to set up a cheap joke because I said I’d never write about food and then, of course, I dove right in to my restaurant story. Did you catch that? If not, get some coffee or something. Or you could get a cappuccino and a Sambuca from one of the little cafes right up the street from Saraceno’s, which we did. Tasty!

 Sandy and Karre shared a tiramisu and Chris had a cannoli and a Sambuca. Berta was stuffed from dinner, so she just nagged me about drinking the Sambuca. I’m pretty sure she feels that’s her obligation – you know, the nagging thing, which brings me to a subject near and dear to my heart, at least the part that hasn’t been ripped out yet.

 Okay guys – listen up! Why is it that over time, your wife mysteriously transforms in to your mother? Come on men – back me up on this one. You know it’s true! As soon as you have kids she starts treating you like one of them, right? Telling you what to do, telling you to watch out for this – watch out for that – be careful – don’t forget this – don’t forget that. Not to mention that as soon as you have kids – on the back burner you go! Pushed out of the picture – second fiddle – yesterday’s news.

 My kids are grown and gone and have children of their own, so I figured, Great, now I get my wife back. Wrong Kemosabe! Now the grandkids have pushed me out – on the back burner again, or I guess still would be more accurate.

So, you ladies want something to read? I’ll give you something to read. Recipes! Restaurant reviews! Push my column into third place will you? Women! Who needs ‘em?

But I digress, you are expecting a Mansfield column aren't you?

So there I was, sitting at Borders, having a cappuccino, checking out the Mansfield Patch site on my laptop, and I saw that the boy’s and girl’s indoor track teams are the Hockomock League Large School Division dual-meet champions. Way to go Green! What a tremendous accomplishment!

I know the hard work that goes in to training for track and field. During my senior year at MHS, I was a tri-captain along with my classmates Art Lemire and Mark Boldrighini. If you’ll take a look at the photo, that’s Mark on the left and Art on the right, and that handsome, svelte young man in the center – that’s me! There’s actually someone way on the far left, but he’s blocked out of the picture so no fame for him. 

Our track team had a perfect record – zero and however many meets we had. Yup, we were shut out!

The great thing about track is that you can really compete against yourself. You get better as you progress throughout the season – beat your previous time or throw or jump or whatever. You can also win your event even though you lose the meet, so at least there’s some measure of satisfaction – because losing bites!

Oh, did I tell you that we didn’t even have a track? It’s true – no track. We ran around the field where the new Football stadium and track are now. We just ran on the grass. For obvious reasons, we had no home meets – none -  all away meets. I’m not complaining!  We had a great group of guys and a great time.

Losing builds character. Yuh, that’s it – character. At least that’s what our coach told us. He was fired at the end of the season, but I’m sure that experience; the losing and firing and all, really shored-up his character.

Not even one victory. Not one! Oh well, at least I got to take out my frustration on the football field. Did I ever tell you about the time I tackled a guy so hard that……..

Oh, sorry. My wife told me I’ve been working long enough and I have to go to bed now. I’ll finish this a little later – if she says it’s okay.

Coming mom!

Make it a great week!

Bob Havey is a freelance writer and a Mansfield native, currently living in Easton. His column "Take Me Back" appears every Friday at http://mansfield-ma.patch.com.His other column, "The View From Here", may be seen each Tuesday at http://easton-ma.patch.com.