TUPATALK: A cleaning lady's son and used magazines
In recent days, I’ve reflected on some of the memories from my early days of discovering the wonder of pro and then college sports.
Sports magazines played a major role in my education, especially since this was in the era of only three main TV channels (NBC, ABC, CBS) and decades before the main proliferation of personal computers and the internet.
But, we weren’t exactly the richest family on the block, so my resources in buying sports periodicals was limited.
It’s kind of funny to me now, but back then (1969 or 1970), a certain national banana brand came out with a relevant promotion. Instead of a sticker naming the company, each banana had a sticker with a NFL helmet decal on it.
Needless to say, my banana intake went through the roof for a few weeks. I believe I obtained all 28 stickers — if not, I only came up one short.
I had created a manilla folder for each NFL team, in which I stuck in stats and stuff from the newspaper, or that I had typed myself. On the cover of each folder I stuck appropriate helmet decal.
During this time, my mom worked as a bank office building cleaning lady — for $1.63 an hour. At 12 stories high, the structure — known as the First Security Bank building — was either the tallest or second tallest in Ogden, Utah, to the Ben Lomond Hotel.
The First Security building rented space to all kinds of people, including doctors and dentists.
Mom cleaned a couple of these kinds of offices, which included magazines in their waiting rooms for patients.
Every few months, the office staff would throw out the older magazines.
Mom would pick out the sports magazines, usually Sports Illustrated, out of the trash and bring them home to me.
It was like an endowment on manna from heaven for me.
It fed my sports mania and helped me connect the with spirit of the era.
One of the SI’s she brought home displayed a black-and-white photo on the cover of a weeping Joe Namath.
NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle had ordered Namath to sell his financial interest in a bar and Namath had announced he would quit football rather than do that.
Another SI cover on one of those magazines was a color photo of a contemplative Arnold Palmer and the observation he had turned 40, which back then was basically considered retirement age in pro golf. The headline on the cover stated: “Farewell To An Era”.
But, my all-time favorite SI’s that’s mom’s enterprise blessed me with was the three-part series in the summer of 1970 about Minnesota Viking quarterback Joe Kapp, my all-time favorite.
The headline on the cover was “The Toughest Chicano”
I’ve always considered that series of articles on Kapp as a great example of a feature profile, providing several personal experiences to help create a three-dimensional viewpoint of the individual.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Kapp’s frankness and toughness, my mom had a different take.
She wasn’t quite as taken with Kapp as I was and referred to “reading between the lines,” which was a new phrase and concept for me.
Even though I don’t think we ever saw eye-to-eye on Kapp’s virtues, mom always encouraged me to examine and to think for myself.
She respected my passion in sports and supported it, probably thinking it would eventually pass.
She was quite a sports fan herself, ever since following the 1960 Pittsburg Pirates. Oh, she didn’t understand many of the more subtle aspects of competition, although she continued to learn, but she loved the honesty and courage of true competitors.
Within the first several months after I landed — at age 31 and after eight years of trying — my first full-time newspaper job, mom told me one day on the phone that she was proud of me. I don’t know that I’ve ever received a finer compliment.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: TupaTalk: Mom provided the best she could
