All posts tagged Memories:
Slobberknocked! – at my first football practice, as a 5th grader at Coopertown Elementary School, I was lined up in “the Pit” drill vs. Lon Claney a 6th grader and he was like Troy Polamalu is for the Steelers - Lon Claney brought the pain!
5th grader/running back vs. 6th grader/defensive back…whistle…KRRAAACK!...he absolutely drilled me…slobberknocked! As I lay on the ground, gasping for any air I could suck into my heaving lungs and still clutching onto the football (at least I didn’t fumble the ball), my coach knelt down and screamed into my helmet’s earhole at me and for all the other players to hear/heed, “here’s a lesson that all football players need to know Carroll… the difference between being “hurt” ( it’s only temporary pain) & injured (no way you can continue) - which one are YOU?! Of course I couldn’t say a word because I was frantically trying to recall how to breath. My coach told me that I was ONLY hurt - lesson learned!
TD #1 - 5th grade game vs Oakmont ES; memorable play: Quick Pitch/Right; Scampered to the end zone untouched and ran “scared” the whole way – with my “slobberknocked” memory fresh in my head!
(note: I had to wear jersey #55 the whole season to honor an injured player on the 6th grade team. I had to give up my coveted #22 jersey that I wore to emulate the Dallas Cowboys Bob Hayes).
Watching football games always conjure up some of my early memories of the game that introduced me to organized sports. I took a lot of lessons from playing on the gridiron that helped shape my understanding of being a part of a team. Lessons like: support each other, you win as a team and/or lose AS a team, it’s not about YOU it’s all about the TEAM. Lessons that I still follow today. Do you have any positive and enduring lessons that you can recall from sport?!
Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday and enjoy your chase…
My wife, Kim and daughter Kavina decided to throw an online birthday party for me. Somehow they infiltrated the high security cordon that I maintain around my contact list, emailed a bunch of folks and (knowing I really don’t like surprise parties) asked them to join this beautiful, eco-friendly virtual gathering on the world wide web. It was such a clever, heartfelt gift that has sent tons of luv my way. I’ve received messages and phone calls from people that I haven’t heard from in years and my Facebook page is looking like the stock exchange on a heavy trading day.
If you’ve read my website at all, you know that the fabulous Miz Lane is so much more than a mentor. Recently she told me: “so many of your friends have passed away, been incarcerated or are on drugs…the fact that you’ve made it to 50 is a BIG deal!”
In that spirit, I decided to reflect on my years on the planet…hopefully, my memories will trigger some of your own.
50 years & 100 Memories…
Short thoughts from a FULL Life
• “Oh the places you’ll GO…” - Nomad since 1958. Abandonment begins from birth and @ 1 y/o I’m living with my Aunt Sandy for over a year.
• (2) Fighter - The taxi ride to Bryn Mawr Hospital for emergency hernia surgery at nearly 3 y/o (I’m told it was a near death moment for me). My Dad is gone by now & never returns.
• (3) Homeless Child – from birth ‘til the age of 6 y/o, there was no permanent dwelling for us and we slept in cars, on porches, and in the houses of strangers (my Mom’s drinking buddies).
• (4) “Daycare” – sitting on the lap of my Mom in the dark, dank atmosphere of a bar (in the middle of the day) and the oh-so-familiar smell of cigarettes and liquor.
• (5) Daddy fill-in-the-blank – “Daddy” Jackie, “Daddy” Fortune, “Daddy” whatever his name may be. My mom insists that we call all of her “Seagram’s suitors”…Daddy.
• (6) One GIANT leap for the USA! – it’s 1961, I’m nearly 3 y/o and I’m being told to sit in the living room, in front of the B&W TV (with a cloths hanger used for the “rabbit ears”) at my grandparent’s house, when JFK delivers his “man on the moon” proclamation to the nation. In the years to follow and with every evening news update I watched ‘til the “giant leap” in 1969, I can remember countless times looking up into the heavens at the moon and being bewildered about how someone could possibly travel that far?! It was my first, tangible example of the power of dreaming big and turning an idea into a reality!
(Follow the link below to read the entire piece.)
What’s your Red Rubber Ball?!
Books by KC
