As I said in part 1 of my blog, you never know how the memories you have as a child will come back around to your own children. I was lucky to have a dad that was very involved in my life and spent a lot of time with us kids. He taught me how to catch a baseball, shoot a basket and coached my soccer and basketball teams.
We loved watching sports together and one of our favorite teams to watch was the Harlem Globetrotters. The Globetrotters would come to town once a year playing at the Mercer Arena (now Key Arena). In November 1983, my dad talked about getting tickets to go see them when they came to town that following February or March.
Our plans changed however in January 1984, when my dad was diagnosed with cancer. His radiation and chemo treatments kept us from seeing the Globetrotters that year. I was lucky to enjoy a few more Mariner games in the Kingdome with my dad, before I lost him to cancer in August of 1985.
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Seeing the Globetrotters at Mercer Arena was a memory my dad and me never got to share and is something I could not see doing without him. But things can change once you have a child of your own or in my case adopt a child of my own.
When my daughter Tabitha was about four, I caught a commercial that said the Globetrotters were coming to town. Enough time had passed and I knew I was finally ready to go see the Globetrotters. While driving to the game I started to tear up with the thoughts of my dad and the memories we shared running through my head.
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There I was sitting courtside with my daughter in her oversize Globetrotters jersey (picture attached) and both of us about to see our first Globetrotters game. When they took the court I could no longer hold back the tears. It took 15 years, but I finally made it to a Harlem Globetrotters game.
I miss sharing with my dad those big moments in sports like the Mariners making the playoffs, the Seahawks going to the Superbowl or the Sonics leaving town. Then, I also wonder what he would have thought of those little moments he also missed, like Tabitha's first basket, base hit and soccer game.
Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there and to those of you who only have the memories of their dad, may they all be good ones!