contest entry: my favorite memory

I hate to beat a dead horse but  here i go

My birthday is December 18th and ill always remember being in the house that clyde built and watching Brandon scorch the suns for 52 big ones,, but thats not my favorite blazer moment.. its (surprise surprise) the day we won the championship!!..but let  me give it to you from my perspective

The day started out other wordly.. my friends and I decided to skip school (we attended year around school) and walk downtown to hang out at the carnival, because nothing is better in Portland than rose festival time.., it was the first time I had ever played hookie!! Every thing was going deviously as planned until we reached the Broadway bridge, it had became jammed and was stuck in the up position.. We were only 11 yrs old and didnt really know that we could back track and go accross the Steele so we waited it out..about 30 minutes into our wait, a sea of red black and white came pouring out of the Memorial Coliseum, every one was yelling and screaming and dancing.. A platinum blonde that was the spitting image of Olivia Newton John grabbed me by the face and planted a sloppy kiss right on my lips.(my first interracial kiss.. umm ok my first kiss period) and asked me why wasnt I happy. I asked her why should I be and she said that we had just won the world championship!!

I cant lie I knew of the blazers, because of the trading cards that used to come in loaves of wonder bread, and the coloring books that I got whenever my parents filled the tank at shell..I knew that Larry Steele was a thief.and that Lionel Hollins was a train of some sort..I had a hard time understanding the "two for Larue" thing

The bridge finally came down and we were escorted down town by a convoy of cars honking horns..all the way to the water front.. and once we arrived at the carnival it was a ghost town,, every one had started to vacate the fun center and they were driving down front avenue..honking their horns as well!!!

I never imagined that the Portland Trailblazers and the game of basketball could be so exciting and important to the whole city

Well when I got home word had already reached  my mother that i didnt attend school and I was placed on a one week punishment...three hours later there was a tap on my window..it was my friends again they were playing hookie from their punishment to go to the after party being held at a club called Genevas!!  so I crept out the window and headed down the street to Williams and Skidmore.The block was closed off and there was an off the hookparty going on with dancing and eating and music blaring! I hugged Maurice Lucas, and high fived Herm and Johhnyeven Big Bill was there and everyone started doing that twirling thing he did with his hands over his head when he was signaling for the motion offense  "We Are The Champions"  by Queen and "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye played at least 50 times that day and I still get chills when I hear either song on the radio

A few years later  those same two friends and myself took Wilson High school to within one game of the state championship

(1984 we lost to corvallis by 3 in the first round but beat every other team by a 20 point margin in route to the conselation trophy....on the same floor in the same building where magic was born