Both of my parents loved...no, loved is too weak a word...they obsessed over football. During football season, if they were not watching football, they were talking about football. They each had their favorite teams, their favorite players, even their favorite coaches. If the phone rang during a game, we had to answer it and take a message; they weren't budging from in front of the TV until that game was O.V.E.R.With parents like that, you would think I'd love football, including the high holy day of "Big Game" Sunday. In fact, I loathe football. Why?
Because of Little House on the Prairie.
During the fall and most of the winter, Monday night television priority #1 was - you guessed it - Monday Night Football. For those of you who don't (or are too young to) remember, that was the exact same night my most favorite show of all time was on, Little House on the Prairie. After a year of listening to me moan in agony throughout their favorite Monday show, they finally bought a small black and white portable TV for my sisters and I to keep in our bedroom. They thought that would solve the problem. It only made it worse, because that was about the time Laura entered her middle teen years. She and I were not only the same age, we shared the same dramatic season in life; falling in love.
I wanted so much to live out my longings with Laura as I watched she and Manly (Almanzo to everyone but Laura) waltz through their courtship dance. Instead I had to watch it on a tiny screen in two-toned monotony. Blech. It made their passion seem so lifeless. In retaliation for being denied the satisfaction of watching love bloom in living color, I vowed never to like football, no matter what.
Fast forward 20 or so years and I still have never seen a football game. Sometimes I walk into my family room and see my mom watching a game, though. Whenever I see those bulky uniforms and helmets, I think of Almanzo saying (on that tiny screen), "I'll call you Beth," and my heart aches all over again.
Who could choose all that spitting and sweat over true love? Not me! On Super-whatever Sunday you'll find me at the movies.
Could anyone recommend a good romance?
2 comments:
This brings back some very fond memories. Little House on the Prairie was my favorite TV show as well. I swooned over Michael Landon, in fact I almost named my son Landon because of my childhood crush on him! Laura was my make-believe sister. I can just hear her sweet voice talking to her "Pa" while she raked the hay. :) I just loved her! And that mean ol' Nellie Olsen...well, she was just evil!
Thanks for bringing to mind these good memories. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
I still LOVE Little House! When I had cable it was on in the afternoons and I watched the reruns.
I read all the books when I was about ten or eleven and totally fell in love with them all. Living on the Kansas prairie just added to my love of those books. Ahhhh...such great memories!
Football...humm, well I have never been able to get my mind around grown men dressed like sofas, nearly killing each other just to touch the dead pig. And the butt patting is just TOO much for this gal.
Thanks for the great memories!
Blessings,
Kathy
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