Last week I tested Meema for the first time with my father, Ralph. It was a great experience.
I started by introducing or framing the activity.
Steve: Hey Dad, let me show you Meema. There might be some topics that interest you.
Ralph: Sure!
So we sat down together in the living room at the television: me, Dad and his wife, Lee Anne. I turned on the TV which was set up with the Amazon Firestick. All I needed to do to open the Meema “skill” was to ask for it.
Steve (pressing the Alexa button on the remote): Open Meema.
Meema: Hello, I am Meema. How can I help you?
Once Meema was open, I could either address Meema or talk with my father. So before I told Meema what to do, I introduced or “framed” the specific story with Ralph.
Steve (to Ralph): Let’s start with a short story about Jackie Robinson.
Ralph: OK.
Steve (speaking to Meema and pressing the button): Tell us the story about Jackie Robinson.
Meema: Jackie Robinson was a great athlete and professional baseball player.
Meema: Robinson was the first African American to play in the Major Leagues.
A hit against the Yankees in an exhibition game in 1950; Patrick A. Burns/The New York Times
Dad was watching while Meema narrated the story and showed us a series of pictures right on the television. The content of the narrative was not new and was not intended to inform, teach or persuade; instead, it only reminded us of things we already knew and was intended to inspire conversation. There were pauses built into the narration so that we could talk to each other as Meema continued with the story.
Steve (to Ralph): Dad, isn’t that picture great? The sun is so bright and it’s so clear. It must have been a beautiful day at the park.
Ralph (to Steve): Yes.
Meema (to both of us): He played second base on defense but he was also a great hitter and base runner.
Jackie Robinson stealing home in 1955 World Series; Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times
Meema: In this picture he is stealing home against the Yankees in the 1955 World Series.
Steve (to Ralph): I seem to remember you telling us that you listened to Yankees games on the radio in the kitchen with Grandma and Grandpa…
Ralph (to Steve, ignoring Robinson and pointing to the catcher): I think that’s Yogi Berra!
Meema (finishing the story to both of us): He played a major role in the rivalry between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees and became an iconic figure in the popular culture of the 1940’s and 50’s.
At this point in the story, Dad came alive. He was right: it was Yogi Berra. Then he added, “I think I remember that play. The umpire called him ‘safe’ but he was out. I remember how he jumped up, took off his mask, and threw it on the ground!”
I struck gold and I knew it. Dad was ignoring Robinson and the Dodgers, the subject of the Meema story. He was a Yankees fan and wanted to talk about that. I encouraged him to tell his story.
He continued talking about Berra, “I remember seeing him on television many, many years later and he was still pretty pissed about that call.”
I won’t reveal the rest of the private conversation, but suffice to say that it lasted 30 minutes or so. We discussed Dad’s experience playing football and basketball with Ernie Davis at the Elmira Free Academy. And that led to his recollection of playing freshman football and changing to lacrosse as a freshman at Colgate in 1959, including some details that I’d never heard before.
When the conversation lost a little momentum, Dad apologized to me. He said, “Sorry Steve, you were going to show me Meema.”
I replied, “I just did.”
It was wonderful.
Postscript: I went looking for video of Yogi Berra talking about the contested play. In fact, there are LOTS of recordings of Yogi arguing about that call by the umpire. Here is the best one, in my opinion, a Tim Russert interview of Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Phil Rizzuto. Enjoy.
Tim Russert / CNBC video from 2002 with Rizzuto, Berra and Ford discussing the disputed play.
