Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. The title in itself makes it very special. We as a country have sooooooooo much to be thankful for. Hopefully, the last Thursday in November causes us to reflect on and appreciate all of the blessings in our lives.
But Turkey Day is probably earns the silver medal on my holiday list (besides the Michael Phelps of holidays that comes on Dec. 25) for several other reasons.
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One of the great joys of life is eating. Is there another holiday that can even come close to this…
The turkey. The potatoes. The stuffing. The gravy to tie it all together. H-E-A-V-E-N!!!
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A second great joy of life is sleeping. That first great joy mentioned above leads to this second great joy.
A third great joy of life is watching the NFL on TV. If only we didn’t get stuck with the Lions every year, maybe there would be radio stations playing 24 hours of Thanksgiving songs!
All those perks of this holiday are common traditions to most families across our country. Beyond those joys, there are a couple other reasons that TGD is special to me. Here’s my timeline. Cue the Kenny Rogers’ “Through the Years” background music…
Thursday, November 26, 1970: a young and beautiful Joanie Aljancic enjoys her Thanksgiving dinner so much, she looks like she is expecting a child.
Friday, November 27, 1970: Joanie Aljancic is expecting a child. Any moment. She calls her husband, who is coaching at a high school basketball practice, to take her to the hospital. Andy quickly heads to Timken Mercy Hospital, but his bride is nowhere in sight. He calls home to see what’s taking her so long. Whoops, Andy was supposed to pick her up. Andy makes the 20-minute ride home to pick up his bride. All this driving has made him hungry, so on the way back to the hospital, he makes a quick stop at McDonald’s to pick up lunch while Joanie tries to hold back nature in the back seat. Eventually, they complete their journey to the hospital, and a couple hours later, little Andrew makes his debut. He soon picks up the nickname, ‘Mac’. Thank goodness Andy wasn’t hungry for one of these…
or you might be currently reading the blog, Sports Words with Wendy.
November 28, 1974: Joanie and Andy come home four days after the birth of the third child, Jon. Little Mac, who just celebrated his 4th birthday, declares baby brother as his birthday present. Jon-Jon is a nice present for a 4-year old, but not as sweet as Mac’s favorite present that year:
Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down!
Thanksgiving morning, 1996ish: As the Turkey Day birthday brothers entered their 20s, they decide to start the tradition of Thanksgiving morning basketball with baby brother Mike and friends. This tradition has continued to this day. Here a few observations from these battles over the years.
1. Younger players move much faster than older players
2. I am one of the oldest players, so it is of the utmost importance that I find an old guy on the other team to guard.
3. You are at your athletic physical peak at about age 22. College guys have plenty of room in their weekly schedule for hoops, weight lifting, and other sports.
4. When you join the real world and get a full-time job, two things decrease dramatically:
A. FUN. It’s much harder to be a joy boy when you are working all day. And when you are working all day, you don’t get home until late, so you don’t have near as much time for all that fun stuff you did before. And for that little free time that you have, you are either…
i. too tired to use that free time for fun,
or
ii. too married to use that free time for fun.
Wait, let me restate point ii (I hope I am following proper outline form):
ii. extremely fortunate to have found your beautiful, wonderful soul mate to share the rest of your life with. Thus, you want to devote free moment by her side. Talking about your day over dinner. Watching TV shows like Party of Five together. Politely discussing differences together to work toward a common solution. That’s alot more fun than playing hoops with the single guys.
I love you, Beth, my beautiful and wonderful bride!
…back to the outline. To review, full time job decreases A. Fun, and thus…
B. Your hoop skills. Since you were a kid, you played sports at least 2 hours a day, whether it was a game, a practice, or just hanging with friends. When you get a job, you are lucky to play 2 hours a week. So the muscle memory you developed over the last 15 years soon develops a case of amnesia. You get two steps slower. Your shot comes up short. Your automatic go-to move looks like a train wreck.
5. Through the years of Turkey Day basketball, I have seen just about every college graduate age about 5 years once they enter the rat race. That young man faces a fork in the road. The easy path is to work, lay on the couch, avoid working out, and thus choose…
But the competitive juices that flow in many athletes drive them to revive their athletic abilities. And sure enough, the lungs, the legs, the shot, and the moves return. Or at least somewhat return.
6. Even for those guys that bounce back from the heavy anchor of the workplace, Father Time has yet to lose a battle. Thus, the combination of fatherhood, fatigue, and the forties begins THE FADE. As an athlete, THE FADE can be long and gradual, like a beautiful sunset…
if you work really hard at keeping in shape.
If you don’t work at it, THE FADE not a sunset. Its a light switch. And with a quick flip, it looks like this…
Personally, I have worked to prolong the fade. I work out in the basement, and you may even see me periodically jogging (a better description would be ‘not walking’) down the street. So for Thanksgiving morning hoops, I am alright getting up and down the court. But getting the ball in the hoop is another story. That whole muscle memory thing catches up to me when it comes to my hoop skills. I settle into my role of making good passes, setting some picks, and hopefully scrounging up a bucket or two before we call it a day.
7. Athletically, being older is an advantage…when you are growing up. A 10-year old playing a 13-year old is like me playing Lebron. Unfortunately, that advantage margin gradually decreases until you get to that ‘get a job’ stage of your life mentioned above. At that point, the tables are turned, and you become the older, slower guy. And you always will be the older, slower guy. The 25-year-old guy is faster than the 30-year-old guy. 40 is faster than 45. When I am 80, I am gonna have to use my patented ‘double hand check’ move just to slow down that shifty, baby-faced 75-year old whippersnapper!
8. I turned 44 on Thanksgiving Day this year. One thing that I have learned about playing sports in your 40’s is that the #1 goal is not to get hurt. I have seen too many Brett Farve and Kobe Bryant wannabees walking around with a back brace. Or maybe sporting one of those plastic walking boots after tearing their Achilles heel.
So how do you avoid injuries? Avoid quick change of direction moves. Don’t jump too high (don’t want to roll an ankle). And most importantly, never shift past 3rd gear. 40-year old muscles like smooth rides. Think more ‘Sunday afternoon drive’ on cruise control and less “Fast and the Furious” hot-rodding through the streets of L.A.
I am happy to say that I once again survived another Thanksgiving morning of basketball. The only complaint I can file is that when I woke up Friday morning, my body reminded me about some muscles that I hadn’t put to use in a while. My stiff walking that morning could easily get me a zombie role on the Walking Dead.
Normally, that wouldn’t phase me much. Nothing that a hot shower, a Tylenol, and a day of lying around eating left-overs couldn’t solve.
There was only one problem. I had to get to a Turkey Bowl football game in about an hour.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2