May 9 is a very important date to me. And for many reasons, too.

It’s the day after my sons, Dom and Vinny, turn 23! It will be one week to the date after my beloved cousin, Rich DeLeo, celebrates his birthday on May 2. It’s also one week to the date that I will celebrate No. 61 on May 16.

But more importantly, it will be the date that Vinny graduates from Saint Francis University with his degree in Elementary Education/Special Education. But that isn’t even the biggest thing that happens on May 9 … we get our credit card back from Vinny on that date!

For those of you who are thinking or saying to yourselves “What a horrible thing to write” and it is … but it’s also funny and that is why both you and I are here at this moment together.

This is also the part in my column where I usually would say “Don’t get me wrong” because I am not wrong, I am totally right on this one despite what everyone living in my house thinks, and since only two still live there, they are the only ones who get a vote!

I love my kids. I would jump in front of a moving vehicle to save their lives, but if it involves Vinny, it would be someone from the credit card company coming to collect from me and Mrs. Franco in one of those Brink’s armored trucks.

And yes, I know he used it because there were things that he just didn’t have the money for, and it was our way of helping him out at school because he did borrow a lot of money because the track and field scholarship, and other school and government grants, only covered so much.

What hurts us, mostly me, is because my wife does not worry out loud the way I do, and let’s face it, loud is — and should be — the key word with me. It’s what I do.

When the track team goes away for a meet, they receive a stipend but SFU, which I absolutely love here, can only give so much to their student-athletes. But my son is not a middle distance, or long distance runner. He is a thrower. Throwers are eaters.

Sometimes Vinny would call home on meets we could not attend and tell us that one of his teammates didn’t have enough money, or forgot money, and he used our card to help him out. Because I am who I am, I always thought “Why can’t you be friends with a teammate who competes in the 3200-meter run?

My wife says he has a big heart, a good heart. That’s because he eats a lot of protein … case in point. One night, several years ago, he asked if he could go to Walmart and buy a steak to eat because he was hungry and the cafeteria was closed. He also needed underwear, which I think he put in there to throw me off the fact that he wanted a steak! Who eats a steak after 10 o’clock at night? You know who doesn’t? A middle distance runner.

He uses the card for gas for his car, which I am fine with because he did his student teaching nearby at Penn Cambria. But he buys gas at Sheetz, and you know what Sheetz has … too many food options! I love Sheetz because of their two hot dogs for $1. You know who doesn’t eat just two hot dogs for $1 … throwers!

And every now and then, more now than then, we get a credit card bill with restaurants off campus that are not Sheetz, and it drives me not only up a wall but through it, too.

For a year, I kept telling myself that we, mostly I, just need to get to May 9 to get the credit card back. He has a summer job lined up, and we feel extremely confident he will be teaching come this August.

In my dream for graduation day? I am standing in front of the stage at Saint Francis, Father Malachi Van Tassell, the school’s president, is handing Vinny his diploma, and in return, Father Malachi asks and receives the credit card, which he then tosses to me in the crowd the way Eddie Van Halen used to toss guitar picks into the crowd after a rock concert. Everyone is smiling. Everyone is happy. Vinny has his degree. Mrs. Franco gets another one of her children through college, and I finally have some peace of mind, along with a piece of plastic.