My first love was baseball. The need for a connection to my father is one which every boy can relate to. My father’s life revolved around baseball because it was his career. I grew up in ballparks and club houses. The game was filled with fun mascots (thats my pops with the San Diego chicken) and good people. I however wouldn’t be a true fan of the game until the 1990’s. My mother and I were living in Denver and, as far as pro sports were considered, Denver was a veritable ghost town. Though Denver had the AAA Denver Zephyrs, I longed for a major league team to arrive so I could see the teams I only witnessed on WGN telecasts and in my extensive baseball card collection.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Sentimentality and Nostalgia
My first love was baseball. The need for a connection to my father is one which every boy can relate to. My father’s life revolved around baseball because it was his career. I grew up in ballparks and club houses. The game was filled with fun mascots (thats my pops with the San Diego chicken) and good people. I however wouldn’t be a true fan of the game until the 1990’s. My mother and I were living in Denver and, as far as pro sports were considered, Denver was a veritable ghost town. Though Denver had the AAA Denver Zephyrs, I longed for a major league team to arrive so I could see the teams I only witnessed on WGN telecasts and in my extensive baseball card collection.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Adventure Time! (make sure to enjoy the links)
I was talking with my mother not too long ago when she not only suggested that I go to the race in Richmond, Virginia. In fact, she demanded it. I think it was a little bit of living vicariously through her son, as she is more of a fan than I am, and also her desire to know I have some semblance of a life away from work. Richmond is only about an hour away from Murfreesboro so the travel expenses were extremely minimal and tickets were only $45 so I really had no excuse whatsoever.
The mission was on to find someone, anyone who wanted to attend it with me. Don’t get me wrong, I am a loner by nature (only child syndrome) but a race is something to share and experience with others because it truly is a spectacle. After canvassing the campus, with lots of prodding and bribery, I finally convinced a coworker to attend the race with me. She had never been to a race despite growing up in NASCAR heaven her entire life. I saw this as a great opportunity to potentially expand the sports fan base even if it was just by a little bit.
The race was on Saturday night so we hitched up the wagons and headed out at noon on Saturday. If you are wondering why we left so early, you have never been to a race. We arrived and found parking behind a liquor store about a mile from the track and took in all the festivities. NASCAR races are like traveling carnivals. Tons of activities, booths, shops, shirtless fat men drinking beer and equally fat women also drinking beer. I threatened to take off my shirt but at the insistence of my guest, I refrained. I did however take in a few beers as we wandered around. After a couple of marines who clearly had nothing better to do than skip out of their volunteer trash duty and hit on my friend, we found our way to our seats (long story). I soon realized why our seats were priced lower than most. They were amazing and you could see the entire track but it was a smoking section. I am not bothered by a little cigarette smoke considering that I have lived around it since my earliest memories but our section was one big cloud of tobacco haze. I felt like I was at a damn Dave Matthews concert but the Sweet smell was replaced by ash.
The pre race festivities went on with everything that is standard. Driver introductions, invocation, national anthem, fly over, the greatest four words in motorsports “Gentlemen Start Your Engines!”. Like I said, NASCAR is an event.
The race was probably boring to the viewers at home but in person, there was always something to keep you enthralled. My guest cheered for Jeff Gordon, for no other reason than the number 24 was her old number for the Tar Heels (or as I like to call it, “The Other UNC”). I of course was decked out in black to show that I was a follower of my man “Rocketman” Ryan Newman. Gordon lead about 100 laps and Newman struggled through most of the race but finished with a top 10. Kyle Busch emerged with the victory which left everyone who follows NASCAR pissed. Kyle Busch is the ultimate villain. If you watched wrestling and cheered for the Undertaker instead of Hulk, or cheered for Miami instead of Notre Dame, Kyle Busch is your man. For that reason, people were pretty angry.
We ventured back to the car and said that the first place we find still serving food, we would stop. It turns out that due to traffic, we wouldn’t see anywhere to eat until around 1 am. Low and behold, Waffle House beckoned us. It was the perfect place to eat after a NASCAR event. No two institutions hold as much southern nostalgia as NASCAR and WoHo. After gorging ourselves a little too much, we found our way back to “the Boro” and I slept for the next day and a half. All in all, I am glad my mother demanded I go.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Dixieland Delight...
For those of you unaware as to where I have been, I figured an update was well overdue. I just moved to a quiet hamlet of Murfreesboro, North Carolina. It is peaceful here. The town is not much more than a main street and the campus. I am a football coach by trade and the nasty truth about the profession is that you are constantly moving early on in your career. I think I have found somewhere, however, that I could spend some time in and be perfectly comfortable. Though it is winter and the chill is not quite how I envisioned the American South, the grass and trees are still green. This is foreign for a guy who has lived his entire life in various frigid climates.
There is a sort of romanticism to the town. There has always been a level of romanticism to the American South as it is. Whether it is the easy-going way of it’s inhabitants, the rich history, or even Daisy Duke and the ‘General Lee’ the American South can be very captivating and alluring. I had experienced this element of southern living while visiting my parents in Arkansas but they live in a tourist and retirement community and, though it is a great place, lacks the authenticity of the area I am in now.
Murfreesboro’s demographics are something I was prepared for but did not truly comprehend. As a child, the only association I could make to the American South was it’s association with the abomination of slavery. Perhaps that is why "The Boro", with a population of exactly 50% White and 50% African Americans would seem to be difficult to grasp. Shouldn’t there be racial tension? Shouldn’t there be resentment on the part of the Black population towards the White population? Out of shear naivete, I asked these questions of a few trustworthy coworkers and they explained that the perceptions of the hostility were formed a hundred years ago and that Selma, Alabama does not speak for the rest of the South. I have been greeted with smiles, open doors, and even on a few occasions, a hug. Southern hospitality at it’s finest.
I have read the work of William Faulkner and see how he could cherish his home here in the South. I am 2 hours away from the mountains, an hour from the Atlantic Ocean, I have a driving range a mere 20 yards from the door to my office and somewhere, someone is shoveling snow. Will I be in the South for the rest of my life? I doubt it, but if that were the case, I wouldn’t complain.