In Which I Force My Children to Relive My Childhood

When I was a kid, The Harlem Globetrotters were big. They were on Scooby Doo, Gilligan's Island, and even had their very own cartoon on Saturday morning, where, to the best of my knowledge, they solved mysteries with their phenomenal basketball skills. It was awesome.

Then, one day, The Harlem Globetrotters came to the Oakland Coliseum and my dad took me. I can't remember if he took anyone else in the family. All I remember is the amazing basketball trick shots and hilarious pranks. From then on, whenever I shot hoops in the yard, Sweet Georgia Brown was the soundtrack playing in my head.

Naturally, I've wanted my boys to have the same experience with the Harlem Globetrotters. When I heard they'd be coming to Portland, I found the best tickets I could afford (i.e. the cheapest tickets they offered--all those taxes and fees really add up!) and started pumping up the kids about the awesomeness of the Harlem Globetrotters.

About ten days before the show, Robert came home from work with good news. We'd won tickets from Intel to see--wait for it--The Harlem Globetrotters. Not only would the tickets get us into the game, they would also entitle us to a meet and greet with some of the players. So I posted my other tickets on craigslist, sold them for face value, and met some guy for a late night swap in a Burger King parking lot. 

And so Saturday we saw the Globetrotters.

The show was as cheesy and perfect as I remembered. But the best part of the whole day came when Ethan leaned over and said, "Thanks for taking us mom, this is awesome."

Jonah and Isaac were completely engaged too. When we got home, Ethan went right outside to shoot hoops. He stood all the way across the yard and heaved the ball towards the hoop over and over. I could almost hear Sweet Georgia Brown playing in his head. Sunday, Jonah made a Globetrotter's word search with words like GPod (one of the players) Globie (the mascot) and Elite (the opposing team). On Monday, Isaac hugged Robert and told him thanks for taking him to the Globetrotters.

Before the game we'd had the opportunity to meet three of the players and get our picture taken with them. I went online to see the photo and it's $14. But you know what, I think I'll buy it anyway.