As a child, my favorite memories of sports and a sports team were my memories of my MOTHER, who loved watching the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. I think she developed a love of baseball, the game itself, from her hometown upbringing in Santaquin, UT, yet I’m not sure.
What I do know is that her excitement about watching the game on TV from our Long Beach, CA home baffled me. What’s all the fuss about baseball? I learned, from her, about the game, about the World Series and about the joy of watching team sports. I was fortunate to be able to attend some Dodger games, yet I find myself being a people-watcher rather than a game-watcher. Unless the game is REALLY exciting, my attention wanders in about the third inning. I do have a very fond place for the Los Angeles Dodgers in my heart, however.
In contrast, my dad liked to watch boxing on television on Friday nights. As a child, I never did understand why. Years later, my son and daughter were enrolled in karate and took lessons from Johnny Rosas, the United States Welterweight Kickboxing Champion at the time. In support of their sensei, we watched Johnny train and we attended many Kickboxing events. Though different than the boxing my dad watched on TV, it was pretty amazing that my own experience ended up including events which were held at a boxing ring.
As a youth, I loved playing tennis. I have very fond memories of going to Sommerset Park with my best friend and smacking tennis balls across the court! Also, I was on a high school bowling team for awhile.
My husband has coached basketball for many years, so I've learned to love the game more and more. Attending the High School games has been exciting. Although baseball is my favorite game to watch on TV, I think it will soon become basketball because of the enjoyment I share with my husband.
I now enjoy watching my grandsons at their soccer and basketball games, and I love to see my granddaughters sing. The grandchildren and their dad’s have their own favorite teams, so I’m being educated anew. We have a growing number of sports fans in our family now. Funny how life renews itself—even with sports.
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I'm using prompts from The ’52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History’ series. See more of the weekly challenges (in their entirety) by clicking on my Phoenix Genealogy Examiner link. Clickhere. Click subscribe (at the top) if you’d like to get my articles automatically delivered to your inbox, or click the RSS icon to read my posts via a feed reader.
The ’52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy and History’ series is authored by Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog. These prompts are hosted on the GeneaBloggers website.
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