COMING SOON…
Iceman and I completed our hike of the John Muir Trail [Aug. 6-22] and returned home on Saturday. Oh, yes! We lost the permit lottery earlier this year but we took a chance and got what they call “walk-up permits.” I’m going to write about that 200-mile hike soon, just as soon as I recover from reentry to the real world. When I got home we had no Internet service; our home phone didn’t work; the garage door wouldn’t stay down; the grass needed cutting; the bills needing paying; Donna’s RV at Topsail Beach was leaking; you know, all the usual problems. But soon. It was a memorable hike.
* * *
I was in the 9th grade, playing football at Hawthorne Junior High School in Charlotte, the first time I saw the Central High School Wildcats play the rich boys from across town, the Myers Park Mustangs.
The game was played at Memorial Stadium, then the largest stadium in Charlotte, and when the players jogged on to the field fans on both sides –about 10,000 — were on their feet, yelling. Screaming!
I wasn’t all that good at football –too small, too slow– but I vowed that by the time I was a senior I’d be out there. I’d be lining up beside my teammates, facing the ball, hands on my knees pads, ready for the signal to race down the field.
And I was.
When I was a senior I made the Wildcats’ first team kickoff and receiving teams. [We had been moved to a new school called Garinger.] It was a magical year — we won the North Carolina AAAA championship. When we kicked off to Myers Park I was on the field, just as I had vowed. And when the play was over I jogged to the sideline, to our bench, and sat down.
I realized right then, not years and years later — right then — that I had aimed too low.
Coming Friday: Rat Remorse, Part 1 of 3