emma and i had another road trip yesterday.
a few weeks back, one of my brothers had the idea to see a butler game in indy where our cousin, pete campbell, attends and plays basketball. and as it turned out... all five brothers decided to jump on the opportunity to absorb a bit of hoosier hysteria.
on top of seeing family on the court... and in the seats... the chance to sit in hinkle fieldhouse made it irresistable.
everyone in indiana is a basketball fan. it's just part of the requirement. i'm actually kind of surprised the state song doesn't at least mention basketball. if you didn't grow up a hoosier... i'm guessing it's hard to comprehend how one sport could serve as glue for a state for so many years. but it did.
the warren 'lightning five' (i still love that name) packed our little gym back in the days... and no matter how small of a school we were... each year held the door open for the possibility of making it past sectionals to regionals through semi-state and all the way to filling the stands at butler fieldhouse as one of the final four. the story in the movie 'hoosiers' is real. if you watch it and look closely... you'll see me and my brothers and my grade school friends. we weren't in the movie... but we lived it every year in one form or another.
my dad put up a lighted basketball goal and a little indiana limestone gravel court behind our house where my little brother and i played game after game of 'pig' or 'horse' as kids... where we'd watch our bigger brothers sweat away the summer evenings with their friends. and then in the winter we'd move into the barn to cut the wind's sting and play on the cement floor where the tractor would normally rest... the center part that separated the chickens (nesting among the milking area) from the sheep and the hay.
hmmmm. no wonder my asthma was so bad as a kid.
i tried my hand at 6th-grade basketball... but quickly turned in the towel to the ted's, joe's, mark's and brent's who actually had some talent... or at least more than i did. although i rarely played after we moved off the farm in 7th grade... there was no escaping the energy of march madness.
so... even though i'd never physically stepped foot onto the court of butler fieldhouse... in my mind i'd clearly heard that familiar squeak coming from my shoes many times as i peered into our little black and white rca to watch the state finals... or was it a zenith?
and when our little school was consolidated... after a tinge of awkwardness... we rallied as the new 'huntington north' hoping to be the ones to make our voices hoarse cheering on our vikings to victory at state finals. and we did. become hoarse, that is... but not at the finals. the men's cheer block at h.n.h.s. was both creative and brutal as i recall. we hated them when we were warren. but when our school joined the huntington ranks... after working through some bitterness, we quickly assimilated into the black cauldron spewing venom at our opponents. resistance was futile.
rah, rah, ree... ...kick 'em in the knee!
rah, rah, rass... ...kick ''em in the other knee!
our family monopolized a row in the stands where we could look upon the slightly balding heads of our 'campbell' cousins a few rows below. (i can't figure out how they've retained more hair than the shafers even though we shared a completely bald grandpa!) like us... they came from the corners of the nation for this day too. many of my first cousins i hadn't seen in over a decade. my parents and uncle alan & aunt barbara had kids the same years. not sure if that meant they attended the same parties or what. but heading to their house in marion not only meant that we each had a cousin of similar age to play with... it was a guaranteed blast. let's just say they enjoyed more "permission" that we did. good times.
after the game, i briefly took emma on a little bus tour of indy. i showed her the boarding house i lived in a short time... and drove by 2 of the 3 burger chef's where i was robbed as a manager. those were the days!
this weekend's game wasn't a nail-biter or anything. but watching pete play... seeing my brothers... watching my cousins do their crazy campbell cousin thing... sitting in butler ('hinkle' now) fieldhouse... seeing some sights with emma... i definitely have some more great dvd's to play in my head. i couldn't help but think how much my parents would have enjoyed the day.
and standing center court with my brothers... i realized the warren "lightning five" lives on.
Some time ago, I did need to buy a house for my organization but I didn't earn enough cash and couldn't purchase something. Thank heaven my fellow suggested to take the business loans at reliable bank. So, I did so and used to be happy with my student loan.
Posted by: Freida26Carpenter | July 24, 2010 at 04:53 AM