Chicago once had a song entitled "Old Days" which seemed like an earnest beseech and a longing to stroll down memory lane and relive the ghosts of the past. I don't know what it is about the human way which always wants to cling to the past. When the past was once the "NOW" the perception of it was not embraced with the endearment and longing we grasp and treasure it with in our later years. For some, it may be the old adage of "The grass is always greener on the other side" and while the years advance, the perception of "NOW" seems so much more complex and tenuous, then the "THEN" was, and the "THEN" always seems simpler and purer. I suppose it is all relative, For the "THEN" which at some point in time was ours, and someone else's "NOW", was looked at in the same light as our "NOW" is today.
Still it may be the reminder to some, that they are advancing in their years and their mortality is within sight. For others it may be that those pages of their past which seemed forged and inked so indelibly with the life of their loved ones, have started to fade and yellow in their print, or are now empty pages barren and lifelessly white. Whatever the case, it is apparent that each one of us has a form of nostalgia which lives in us, and do experience moments which trigger those nostalgic mechanisms of remembrance within. I had this mechanism trigger last night in watching game 6 of the NBA Eastern conference finals between the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons.
The culmination of the Celtic win assured an NBA finals matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics and I was quickly whisked away down memory lane. I remembered watching those great Laker Celtics championships in the 60's as a little boy living in Hollywood, and then again in the 80's as a young man in the San Fernando Valley, and the flood gates of my mind opened up the warehouse of memories which were shelved, dust covered and long forgotten........
{{ "My Grandmother (Nana's) Love", "Whacky Gliders", "Partridge Family Trading Cards", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", "Sugar Sugar", "The Fig Tree in our Back Yard", "Collecting pill bugs in plastic buckets", "Swinging from Palm Tree branches pretending to be Tarzan", "Pop Rocks", "Martin's Mini Mart", " "Batman", "Playing crash cars with shopping carts", "The smell of Oleanders", "Grandma's oatmeal cookies", "Wilshire Boulevard", "The Pike at the Santa Monica Pier", "Embarrassing Little Boy Barber Shop Hair Cuts", "Chinese Checkers", "Silly Boy Mischief","Staying up all night on christmas eve watching the fireplace in my bedroom waiting for Santa Clause to pop through, all the while with reluctant fear in seeing him", "Tyco Night Glow", "The smell of Mint in my Grandma's garden", "Carnation Delivery Trucks", "Bread Wagons", "Dippity Doo", "Snaggle toothed Natalie", "Food King", "19 cent bread", "0.15 cent a gallon gasoline", "My Grandma", "Ernie's full service Texaco station and his free ballons, warm smile, head rubs, and lollipops", "Waking up Saturday mornings to the smell of Grandma's waffles", "Playing Yahtzee with my Grandma until the night fell", "Reader's Digest","Mr. Tomochoff", "Nana's brown Rambler which took us on the best of escapes when we were little tots", "Poor Richard's", "Van De Kamps Restaurant and their batter fried halibut", "Watching the Hollywood Freeway from our living room window", "Barnsdall Art Park", "Caroms", "Caravelle Candy Bars", "Disneyland", "My Grandpa", "My Grandpa's farm in Porterville Ca", "My grandpa's famous 7-UP pancakes", "Lawrence Welk", "The Waltons", "The Brady Bunch", "My Three Sons", "The Music Center", "Dr. Seuss", "Hagar the Horrible", 45's", "Portable turntables", "Tom Jones", "Mickey Rivera", "Trips to Las Vegas when the strip consisted of a handful of hotels", "Slurpees", "Western Airlines", "Robert Kennedy", "Jox", "Griffith Park", "The Hollywood Bowl", "Ralph's", "The House of Pies", "Strawberry Rhubarb", "Shake and Bake", "Washing Boards", "Fresca", "Lockwood Avenue", "Sea World", "My Grandma", "My Grandma", "My Grandma", "My Grandma", "My Grandma", "My Grandma", "Pee Chee folders", "See's Candy", In and Out double doubles ", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", "The Sound of Music", "Mary Poppins", "Bedknobs and Broom Sticks", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Sparky Pannozzo", "The 5th Dimension", "Ghiradelli Square", "Autumns", "Cable Cars", "Nerf Footballs", "Tony Bennett's I left my heart in San Francisco", "Jumping train cars walking home from school", "Gato", "Kabala", "Pizza Man", "The Saturday Evening Post", "Tonka Toys", "Bomb Pops", "Big Sticks", "Super Balls", "Water Pistols", "Auditory Oddyssey", "Hughe's", "The La Brea Tar Pits", "Picking Crops on Grandpa's Farm", "Grandpa's VW Bug and how he would always brake within inches of the cars in front of him to play with us.", "Grandma's squeaky rocking chair which my brother and I used as our batmobile while tying bath towels around our necks for capes", "Bob's Big Boy", "The Mojave desert", "Bill and Carolyn Williams", "Sarge", "Merry Go Rounds", "See Saws", "Baseball Cards", "Football Cards", "Playing Old Maid on the kitchen table with Nana", "The Flintstones", "Cuckoo Clocks", "Mrs. Boland's Majestic Grandfather clock which stood as a sentry at the top of the stairs, I would gaze at it in awe, and just marvel.", "The Greek Theatre", "The Griffith Park Observatory", "I who have Nothing", "Daughter Of Darkness", "Adjustable Roller Skates", and "The Myriad of Dreams which filled this little boy's head in those days." .............}}
So, while I will be watching this years NBA finals as the Laker fan that I have always been, these finals will be more than just another finals, No matter what the outcome of them, or who wins, they have opened the door to memory lane, dusting off and filling my mind with all the wonderful memories which for so long sat shelved and in storage. I am, and will remember those days with great fondness, all because of a basketball game.......
