During the summer of 1976, the entire country was focused on the bicentennial. It seemed like every community across this nation wanted to have its own celebration. There were parades planned, extensive fireworks displays were scheduled, and in Boston, the tall ships were coming. It truly was an exciting time for the citizens of America. You could sense the emotion and excitement because of its significance.
The summer of 1976 also marked another birth of sorts, the one and only season for team "Schizzam". During the summer, there was a basketball league for the local "legends" in my hometown. Most of us still could run up and down the court, but the speed of our youth was a thing of the past. My youngest brother thought that it might be nice to organize a "family" team, and by recruiting my brother-in-law, we had the 5 necessary to field a team. Although our "dream team" experience was short lived, the summer of '76 was one for the ages.
Speaking of ages, my brother and brother-in-law, ironically, share February 1st birthdays. Today marks a half century for my younger brother and a decade more for our "adopted" brother. Recently, my brother told me he couldn't even remember life before Wild Bill, and here we are now some 40 years later. So, I'll take this opportunity to say Happy Birthday to at least a part of the band of brothers. In the words of Gomer Pyle, "Schizzam". Those previously inducted members of the half century club would like to welcome you with open arms, and that comes as "no surprise, no surprise, no surprise"!
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words brother! Here are the 2 things I remember about Schizzam. One is when Tommy N. chased you down on a breakaway to the hoop and fouled you hard, ending up in a trip to the ER for you and a pretty bad knee injury. I remember how mad your Dad was after that play, as he thought Tommy was just a little too zealous in what was supposed to be just a friendly rec league game, at le4ast in his eyes. The other is my one and undoubtedly only positive contribution to success in one of our games. We were in a tight contest and it was getting down to the end ahead by a point or two. One of the guys on the other team, exercising a keen eye for talent or the lack thereof was yelling at everyone on his team to foul me as I was the obvious choice as our weakest link. They did, and somewhat to my own surprise I found a way to roll a couple of FTs in, thus foiling their end of game strategy. It had to be galling to the opponents as anyone could see that I couldn't dribble past any half decent opponent while guarded or hit most any wide open shot. But somehow I knocked the 2 freebies down just that one time! So one good memory balances out one bad one! Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to both uncles!!
ReplyDelete-Sophie