GLORY DAYS

About a dozen of us got together for our monthly basketball get together at the city gym. We always have a great run no matter who shows up and today was no different. Some of my "nephews" (my cousins' sons) are in town for the summer and came to play. These are kids in their teens and early twenties.

I'm amazed at how good they've become along with the inevitable comparisons of me and some of the crew when we were their age. (Of course there is no comparison, we would have thumped them bad.) Back in the "glory days" we used to spend most of the summer playing ball wherever their was a game. The heat radiating from the blacktop didn't matter, we would play for hours on end against all comers. Nowadays my playing time is much more calculated, restrained and savvy. With age comes wisdom.

After the game some of the older cousins started teaching the younger ones about different aspects of the game that they might have overlooked, both "tricks" and fundamentals. In particular, one of my nephews really showed promise and I asked him if he's trying out for his high school team (he's a junior). Being that his school is usually one of the best in Southern California, he was a little uncertain because of his size and other seeming difficulties. I told him that he should try out anyway for the experience even if he doesn't make the team, you never know what kind of growth spurt he may have the following year. I also told him that when I played in high school I wasn't the tallest but made up for it in other ways. (I was the team captain but our team was pretty mediocre, I'll blame it on poor coaching.)

I hope he trys out. These types of things at his age will leave a huge impression on him in the years to come.

It seems the older people get, the more they talk about the good ol' days or the "glory days." I think it's okay when those good times are stored away in people's memories to be relived as a catalyst for living today. I guess I mean to say that looking back at our good memories bring joy and energy for creating new ones today.