Happy Monday!

Good morning everyone.  I’m happy today.  Very very happy.  It’s uncharacteristic of a Monday, but I feel that the day and the world is full of so many possibilities.  I hope you all feel as good as I do.  It makes me think of the happiest moment of my life when I was a kid.  Not to be sexist, but a lot of my female readers might not feel me on this, but that’s ok, Cord still loves ya!

In middle school when I was in eighth grade, they brought back team sports to the middle school, as it had been dormant for about 8 years.  I know because my sister went to my same middle school 8 years prior and was on the girls team.  I ate, slept, and breathed basketball, and like most 14 year old boys at that time, I thought I could be like Mike and one day could get to the NBA. 

Now my team was not good.  We sucked really bad. Since I had played for a little league team for two consecutive years, I was already there with the necessary skill and know how of team sports.  And not to brag or anything, but I was the best on the team.  You might ask how I can say this?  Well, we had plays that we ran, but every play might as well been called “Get the ball to Corduroy.” I played point guard, and while it’s not the point guard’s primary job to score (the point guard’s duty is to initialize the plays and to distribute the ball), I was always the top scorer. We only played 6 games because there were only 7 middle schools in the city.  In one of those games, we beat a team 52-20 and I scored 33 points.  In another game I scored 28 points and we lost by 3 or 4, but the game that is the most memorable was the last game of the season.

We had only won 2 games, so at that point, we didn’t feel too good about ourselves as a team compared to other teams.  That night, as we walked out of the locker room after coach gave us his last pep talk, our gym was packed.  People were sitting on the floor!  I was surprised to see all these people come see us being that we were so sorry!  I saw all my friends and girls that I had crushes on all in attendance.  We all thought the team we were playing was better than us too. My good friend , Grady, who is a tall guy and was tall back then played on that team.  But for some reason, none of that mattered. We all came together and played as a cohesive team, knocked down all our free throws when it came down to the wire, and  won.  We may have won by 3 or 4 points and I scored 23.  Everyone rushed the court and cheering and chanting about the victory. Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” was actually a cool song then, so we had another version that mimicked the chorus:

“WAX….THAT….BOONKEY!  DOON DOON DOON DOON DOOGA DOON DOON DOON!”

At the center of it all was me, because everyone saw me as the hero.  Of course I didn’t win the game by myself, but it felt great that everyone saw me as the one who brought them so much joy.  Everyone wanted to know where I was going after the game: “Corduroy! Where are you going man?”  Since Godfather’s Pizza was down the street from the school, It was like I was the pied piper of Hamlin, leading everyone to the restaurant.  We laughed, ate pizza, drank soda, and there was an arcade next door, so we played video games, messed with girls, and just enjoyed being young. 

Although I never felt happier, I feel pretty darn good today.  Holla atcha boy!