>>pk@columbia

11.11.01 - any given sunday

When I returned home to Edison on Saturday night, my mother suprised me by telling me that I had to go to Philadelphia the next day with our landlord to watch the Eagles game. I had forgotten about the plans I had made with my landlord in the summer to go and watch the Eagles play in November. He came to pick me up this morning and we made our way towards Perth Amboy to pick up his cousin.

I should give a brief description about my landlord: he's an old, Jewish guy - and from the years he's given me, such as his college graduation year - somewhere in the late 50's early 60's, I'd say that he's in his mid-sixties. He's a retired gynecologist (hence, the gnyecologist sign in my front yard and his office next door) and currently a substitue teacher at a high school in a town not too far off. I'll refer to him as Art because his first name is Arthur.

Art's cousin was an old guy, too; he reminded me of Walter Mattheau in Grumpy Old Men. His name was Martin and he was a loud, wise-crack guy. So, sitting shotgun in Art's wife's Toyota 4runner, I had Martin sitting behind me and Art driving the car. They exchanged this old-school type of humor where, for example, Art would be approaching a fork in the road and Martin would say something like, "So Art, you know you're supposed to turn onto Turnpike North, right?" when in fact, we were supposed to go onto Turnpike South. I guess if it had been two teenagers exchanging such words, it would have been corny, but I perceived the generation gap even in humor and laughed along. They also decided to poke some fun at me with some North Korea comments. "Is it cold like this in the mountains of North Korea?" Funny guys they are.

The ride to Philadelphia was dominated by sports talk. I love talking about sports, so I naturally had many things to say on various sports topics. We talked about baseball and the imminent contraction, we talked about basketball in the pros and at the college level, and we talked a lot about football. I had much to say on all topics including names, places, and memories, but when Art or Martin would talk about a sports figure from "back in my day," I was automatically left out of that segment. It was interesting to talk sports with two old-timers. I picked up some tidbits about sports such as the history of the New Jersey Nets (they used to play in Long Island), the time when Columbia beat Army 48-47 in football with Stoyaki making two diving catches, and when Drew Pearson and Joe Theismann, both South River High School alumni, met in an NFL playoff game. The ride to Philly felt vintage; not only because the sum of the ages in the car was well over 120, but also because the things these two men conjured up black-and-white images or those fuzzy color footage that make things seem old-school. Their words had a sense of history, experience, and memories that entertained me a great deal.

The Eagles vs. Minnesota Vikings game was the first NFL game that I had ever gone to. We waited in the Holiday Inn owned by one-time Eagles quarterback and current NFL analyst for ESPN Ron Jaworski before heading out to Veteran's stadium. The seats we had were the highest possible, right up against the wall. The view was great and the angle made the view spectacular. We were in between the middle of the field and the endzone and right across from the Jumbo screen. The game was beautiful to watch.

The game was a 48-10 blowout by the Eagles and the Vikings were truly sorry. We left around the middle of fourth quarter and made our way back. Before coming to Philly, we had stopped at a huge diner in Bordentown, NJ called Mastoris. I had myself a strawberry cheesecake there while carefully looking around this massive diner. On our way back, we stopped at another diner in Bordentown called Town & Country. This diner was smaller and supposedly lived from the overflow of Mastoris. I had myself soup and eggs. The ride back was more subdued because I was dead tired, but we still managed to talk some more about sports.

I got back home around 10 pm, and I was able to look back on my day with some amazement. If I asked anyone to guess what I did on this Sunday, who would ever guess that I had gone to an NFL game with two old Jewish guys? The experience was astounding to me. Not only did I cross religious and ethnic differences, I even closed the generation gap to enjoy my Sunday afternoon with Art and Martin. I think what allowed us to have a good time was our shared culture. No matter how different I looked from them or how much older they were than me, we were all Americans who loved to talk sports, ate unhealthy diner food, and were willing to spend a cold Sunday watching an NFL game.

I guess my title has no real relevance to this article except it has a football connotation. In fact, on any given Sunday, you'd find me at home or at school doing work for Monday. Today, I not only got away from my studies, I also got away from the restraints of my environment and had a great time in the outside world.