”You really need to understand football, all of you” was a command from Mrs. McLaughlin.  (The same Mrs. McLaughlin that I credit with making me take college prep classes which changed my life)

So we learned the basics of football.  First and Ten — do it again.  What does that mean?  Scoring, offense, defense quarterbacks.  All the basics. We learned it because it would make us more rounded.  I am not sure if any of this sank in at the time but today, more than sixty years later I pay homage to Mrs. McLaughlin.

Football was not important at in my young marriage years.  I married a scholar who eschewed team sports.  Or individual sports, or most anything other than backpacking and hiking.  His favorite gambit was to walk into a room where people were watching football and ask “What inning is it?”  No.  Football was not a part of our life.  Expect for one game and tha game has become my often repeated family story.  (Number 14, I believe).

I had to look up the year.  Thanks, Wikipedia!

The expansion Seattle Seahawks of the NFL played their first game ever on August 1, 1976, a preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers at the Kingdome.

Yes!  Seattle had a new stadium and a NFL team.  My husband’s boss invited us as their first guests to share their season tickets.  Husband, of course, realized it was a command performance and an honor to be invited.  He did not do his what inning is it bit.  Of course, thanks to Mrs. McLaughlin I could be somewhat conversant.  The Kingdome is gone.  The husband is gone.  Football and the Seahawks remain. And, I have a good story to tell.

If you are not from Seattle, you may not know that the Seahawks are a big deal.  Fans are known as 12s.  Every Friday starting in late summer you will find bank tellers, baristas and folks on the street wearing their 12 shirts.  Those in the know where players numbers and hope your number doesn’t get traded too early.

Yes, I know, head concussions, injuries and all that.  Football may be losing favor.  There is also the flack about a certain player kneeling for the national anthem but in Seattle, and many other cities the local team still sparks enthusiasm.  And let me come to football’s defense

It builds community and interaction.  In these days of only digital communication it is fun to gather with others in a common endeavor — cheering our team on.  Most people have their local favorite place to gather.  I have had “ladies watching Seahawks and eating and drinking groups” at my house. We gather in our local favoriate hang outs.  My personal local establishment refused to have a television for many years.  They do now.  Business is booming on Sunday afternoon.  When watching the Seahawks politics takes a back seat. The only politics is the local interloper with a Cubs or Steelers shirt.

When the Seahawks won the the championship and were on their way to the Super Bowl the town was jubilant.  Police and pedestrians were hugging each other and sending high fives.  We are Seattle.  We are polite.  We do not riot.  Not the football folks anyway.

I am not one to normally wear sports caps but when traveling it is amazing the people you meet if you are wearing a Seahawks hat.  I got high fived in Amsterdam.  As I said — community.

A friend of mine is a sports announcer and she has a presentation called “Talk Sporty to Me” and she makes the point that you don’t have to know a lot to engage in conversation wherever you go.  Just be able to talk about that amazing last second field goal that won the game or some other memorable play.  She even publishes talking points for us weekly.

So once again I am thankful to Mrs. McLaughlin.  Along with English composition she taught me something I could carry into my late years. One of my friends, a lovely person in her 80s, is the Seahawks number one fan.  She remembers that first game in the Kingdome.

And of course I have to add this all time favorite.  Grandson’s first super bowl.

And here he is now.

Seven years ago I started this blog on the eve of my seventieth birthday. It’s been an on and off situation. Sometimes people even read it! So if you are good at math you can determine that I am now 77. Holy Thor. I’m not sure I know anyone that old. So once again I am determined to get at it.

Yes, blogs are old school. Well so am I. I actually do have instagram and twitter accounts just to prove I can but here I am in my old school format knowing someone somewhere will read and smile of be inspired.

So let’s see what has happened since I started this blog.

TRAVEL

I promised myself more travel. And Travel I did.

I went down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in a wooden dory sleeping in a small tent. I went to the Caribbean, Alaska — twice, Cabo San Lucas and a very luxurious trip down the Rhine River to explore the country of my birth. This year I did an expedition cruise along the Northwest Pacific Coast. It had some strenuous hikes and some lazy beach walks.

So travel I did and will continue to do.

My goal for the next year is to be a little braver about going by myself.  I find that small groups or small ships are the best way to travel single.  Some of the cruise lines are being more accommodating to single travelers.  Stay tuned for more adventure.

WRITING

I promised to write more.  I accepted a challenge to write a Sunday blog every week.  I did that.  For about two months. I have attended all sorts of workshops to help writers. And yet I don’t feel I have been writing.  Then this happened.

Despite my protests, I really am a published author.

My promise is that next year there will be another book. A life book?  An inspirational book?  We will see.  But write I will.  I promise.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Ok, here I think I can really claim success. What I am most happy about is the number of people I have introduced to each other. My home hosts parties, creativity groups, writing groups (put that on the to do list) and accountability groups.  I will write future posts about building your tribe and staying socially active as a very important to living a vital life at any age.

Thank you for reading this far.  I promised a group I would write a blog post before our next meeting.  Hmm.  An hour to spare.

And now for your amusement is the gramma birthday picture.  Might be the last year for this.

Some successes come with a resounding “Yippee”, and a spin around the room. Passing a bar exam comes to mind. Some successes take a while to sink in.  And then there are the ones you didn’t realize were such a big deal until much later.

Often when looking around for inspiration for a Sunday blog post I peruse my photos. This collage popped up and it took a little while to realize the story it brought up.

This is a collage of some of my “professional head shots” in the 80’s. The short hair is  the latest and comes in the category of ‘what was I thinking?” There’s a story behind the necklace I will tell another day. Today I reminisce about the time just before these.

One of my careers was teaching a job finding workshop. I had all sorts of teaching materials I assembled every Sunday night in preparation for the following week’s class.  One of our friends opined:  “Why don’t you stop telling other people how to get a job and find a real one yourself?”  Ouch.  I had a job!  I was paid.  Not that well, but I was paid to teach this five day workshop.

Cballenge accepted. I used the skills I had been teaching others and set about landing an executive position. This was the start of the mandate to hire women in executive positions so my timing was good, although at the time, I considered myself merely a suburban housewife.

I applied to what was the largest employer in town — Paciic Northwest Bell.  One of the seven regional bell systems. Somehow my resume landed in the right spot and after an initial interview, I was asked to participate in a role playing interview. One of my mentors told me that if they were spending that much money on me they wanted to hire me and all I had to do was “not screw up.”

I can do that — not screw up.  I think.

When I arrived, I was given an in basket and told that I had a specific amount of time to sort the in basket and prioritize.  I don’t know much about the rest of the items but one item was a dentist appointment that morning.  Somehow I had The wherewithal to figure out that I had to cancel that appointment as not being a priority.  Don’t screw up, remember. Next were mock meetings with my mock managers.  This was fun. It was role play. I can do that.

The afternoon was spent reviewing a case and preparing a presentation. Since I had not gone to business school I didn’t know that this is pretty standard B school stuff. To this day I can remember that case and my recommendations.  Remember, it was all fun and I was just trying not to screw up.

Fast forward to the appointed day I was to phone my contact in HR.  (It was called Personnel back then). When he asked me how I was I said “You tell me.” He told me I was just fine and he was prepared to offer me a position as a marketing executive.  With real money.

Was it a “Yippee” spin around moment?  Momentarily, yes. Especially when I found out that only 1 in 20 survives the role play to be offered a job. So much for just not screwing up. If I had known that I would have been too terrified to open my mouth.  Then as I got to my new recruit training class, I discovered that all my new colleagues were younger, seemingly brighter and had business degrees.  Yikes. Susie homemaker goes to the corporate world.

But I did survive.  Long enough to get some impressive headshots.

What were some of your “Yippie”, spin around the room moments?