It is Valentine’s Day. There must be someone in your life that makes everything worth while. Give that someone a big kiss, a warm hug and say the words “I love you”.
To save my precious time I say sincerely, I love you all!
When I was growing up, I played basketball on Saturday mornings at the High School Gym. We just showed up on Saturday (no practice) and 8th graders played each other. Seventh graders did the same. I think teams went down to 5th grade. We all played one game.
My Mother and Dad argued about Saturday morning basketball. When I was in seventh and eighth grade, our church (Reformed Evangelical Church) had catechism lessons. The study classes also met on Saturday morning. There you have it. A choice had to be made between basketball or eventual Confirmation. I remember my Mom pleading that “for once, let the studies at church take precedence”. Of course my Dad won, again!
Saturday was a return to “yester-year”. Grandson Mitchell plays basketball every Saturday but it is very organized. It is always a double elimination tournament which means even if you lose, you keep playing. That means 3 games every Saturday (remember I played one). So I got to watch the Middleton 8th Graders A team play at 8:00AM, 10:00AM, and Noon. They are 40 minute ball games and the clock contines to run most of the time.
Mitchell plays first string on the A team. That means he is in the top 5 out of 60 candidates for the team. I remember playing first string was a big deal because it meant you weren’t getting slivers in your ass sitting on the bench.
Believe it or not Mitchell is not the tallest on the team but it is close. He is the most physical. He is the teams best rebounder and may be the best “team” player. So he was fun to watch.
Middleton lost game one (by about 4-5 points).
Middleton won game two “big time”. In this second game, Mitchell played the center position for a lot of the game. I know he scored 11 points in the second half alone. No dunks yet! Hey that’s my Grandson outthere.
Middleton lost game three (again by 4-5 points).
So I got to reminisce about Saturday basketball. It was enjoyable. It was exhausting.
Mitchell goes into high school in the fall. This is the last of his Saturday morning games. He will have good memories.
Stay warm.
Love,
Dad