Sumthin about this time of year. The fall. The days that top out at a brisk 45 degrees with a slight breeze. The beautiful rainbow of red, orange, yellow and brown leaves that ONLY Maryland landscapes can display. Late regular season NFL, bowl season and an infantile basketball season trying to grab any attention it can. This is indeed my fav time. Always has been.
Especially when i was younger. Seems like every saturday, me and all the fellas from the OTHER side of Allentown rd would gather together, knocking on everyones doors asking their parents if they were home and prying them aways from their Sega Genisis' to come out and play some ball. Despite the temp, NO one, i mean NO one wore a winter coat. If they did it was simply to avoid a chewing out by their parents on the way outta the house. As soon as we hit the field tho, it was all layered sweatpants, sweaters and long johns.
10 on 10.
no "o" line.
Blitz after 7 Mississippi count but only on 4th down.
Three completions= first down.
First to 35 by 7's is the winner.
I cant remember how many i won or lost. i DO remember when Kwame hit this poor lil
kid so hard that his arms were paralyzed for a few minutes... i also remember how Omari was such a liability on offense, AND defense for that matter. he had decent hands but NO speed at all! Dude was really only good as possession reciever. Plus he was a pouter. He'd always would wanna fight when Jonah, Cliff, Jason, and them called him sorry. Since he was MY friend(on the weekend sleepover tip) tho, we'd just leave and id have to hear about how he coulda beat up all of them had we stayed..
After about 2 or 3 games, Larry would come sauntering up to the park, basketball in tow. Interest from football would wane for the majority of the bunch of us, much to the dismay of Kwame(who was never that skilled in roundball). To me tho is was all good. it would give me a chance to imitate the move that i had watched MJ do on Sportcenter the night before. The reverse layup was my shit. Only way it could be defended was with help and with everyone goin one on one all the time it bacame my go-to move.. I swear, i perfected that thang. Aint nobody out there do that joint like me..(look at me sounding like an old man.)
After all the games, Kwame and i would head over to his crib. Makes ome popcorn, crack a couple of Superfresh brand cola open and crash in his room. He'd be doodling some new Superhero in his Sketchpad and i'd be fiddling thru his Marvel Card Notebook, and his Comic book collection while wrestling was playing on the tube in the background. Meanwhile his sister Malika would be banging on his door yelling at him about feeding Precious(their dog).
The day would end around 6 when i'd say my goodbyes to his fam, hop on my bike and head back to Bushey Dr. At 6:30 in the afternoon, it was one cold ride home, but the memory of those times always warms my heart.
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