Ok, so the Olympics have been over for a few days already, but this entry has been percolating in my head since they started on oh-so-auspicious 8*8*08. Those childhood Olympic memories that come back every time the torch is lit and I am once again captivated by the Games.
There is one memory in particular that I think about the whole time the Games are on. I'm not exactly sure how old I was -- somewhere between 10 and 17 as I don't think I was in college yet, and we were living on "Portsmouth". My Dad and I were sitting in our front room, watching one of the finals for swimming. Who knows, maybe Janet Evans was swimming? I don't know. But it was a big race, and being a family of competitive swimmers, we were glued to the TV.
My Dad sat down in his baby blue La-Z-Boy chair (which he still has btw) right before the race began with a HUGE bowl of
Dennison's Chili (I've linked to this in particular, because the can on the top is what the cans used to look like back in the day). Yep, we used to eat this nasty-ass chili all the time, lol!
Anyways, Dad sat down with his big bowl of chili ... and the gun went off. I don't remember who was swimming, but it was an incredibly exciting race, whoever it was. Like the race Michael Phels won by 1/100 of a second. A nail-biting, yelling, cheering GO!GO!GO!GO! kinduva race. Absolutely thrilling.
I don't remember who was swimming, or who won the race, though. So why is it burned into my memory?
Because when the race was over, Dad looked down at his bowl of chili and it was ALL GONE.
And he didn't remember eating a single bite of it.
He had gotten so excited, and so sucked into the race that he shoveled the whole bowl down in the time it took for the race to start and finish. Which is to say, in less than 2 minutes. Can you say "Gut- Busting Stomach Ache?" Lol! I never laughed so hard in my life
(Btw, I don't think Dad would have believed that he had actually eaten the chili if I hadn't seen him do it. I think he thought for a minute that he'd THOUGHT he had made himself a bowl and then changed his mind or something ... or I'd taken the bowl from him when he wasn't looking??)
So that is one of my very favorite "Olympic" memories. What is one of yours?
P.S. I'll be putting up another new look around here very soon, but thought I'd put something "sporty" up in honor of the Olympics and this entry.