Describe your most memorable vacation.
My brothers played sports, so it stands to reason that the children would follow.
My youngest brother has four children, his oldest son played football in college. It just so happened that one of his games in 2009 was going to be in Connecticut. So I planned a trip to see him play and make a stop in NYC on the way back home.
I had not seen my nephew since he was two years old and my brother was headed for his Army post in Texas. I was excited to see him again.
The game wasn’t great and they lost – it was one of those big teams pays a little team a bunch of money to come play a game and get beat – but it didn’t really matter.
When the ticket people and the security at the stadium learned I was there, they sent word to the locker room and made sure my nephew came out before the game so I could see him.
There we are on the edge of the football field doing the “long lost cousin” hug in front of the whole stadium!
I tried to call and tell my brother when I got back to my seat but it was so noisy we couldn’t hear.
Later that night I headed for NYC on the train. It was my first visit to the “big city” and I was not disappointed!
Sunday afternoon I saw my very first show on Broadway – we saw lots of shows at the local auditorium when I was little, but it was nothing like being on Broadway!
Of all the shows running I chose “Million Dollar Quartet”, fitting for a music nut. The show was about a moment in music history – in 1956 Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and a young Jerry Lee Lewis met at Sun Records on a December afternoon. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips just happened to have the tape running. The event never happened again…until the show hit Broadway.
Levi Kreis – the guy who played Jerry Lee Lewis – won a Tony Award for his performance. All of the characters played their own music.
The trip back home on Monday was anti-climatic but put the cap on a long weekend that will not be forgotten.
It would be 13 years before I would see that now accountant nephew again…and this time I got to meet his little brother – an undefeated boxing champion!