One of the fun things about being a parent is introducing your children to some of the things you enjoyed in your own childhood. On such occasions, I am never sure if what I liked as a kid in the 1970s and 1980s will appeal to my 21st century children.
Last night, Thoughtful Husband and I took Tom and Huck to see the Harlem Globetrotters play basketball at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. My parents gave us tickets to the show for Christmas. (Thanks Mom and Dad.) I don’t know if those of you reading from outside of the U.S. have heard of the Harlem Globetrotters (though you may have). They are a basketball team, founded in 1926, and they travel around the country playing basketball embellished with comedy, tricks (like somersaulting in the air before slam dunking a ball in the basket), and fun. Kids especially love the Harlem Globetrotters, and they even had their own cartoon show when I was a kid. The song “Sweet Georgia Brown” is the soundtrack to the game, and if you hear it once, you will remember it always. I remember my own parents taking my brothers and I see the Harlem Globetrotters play when I was about 10 years old, the age Tom is now.
Despite my wondering whether they would like it as much as we did when we were kids, Tom and Huck were amazed at the stunts and tricks and just plain fun of the Globetrotters. They really enjoyed the show, and eagerly planned to replicate some of the tricks with our home basketball hoop. Tom, who currently plays basketball for his school team, is looking forward to being tall enough to try to “slam dunk” a ball into the basket. Huck wants to try bouncing off of a trampoline and doing a somersault in the air and then slam dunking the ball. I told him that we cannot possibly try that one at home. I hope he will listen to my admonition. 
The nice thing about the Harlem Globetrotters, in addition to their completely amazing basketball skills, is that they take time after the game to autograph basketballs for the audience after the show. Tom and Huck were excited to walk right up to the players who had showed such fearless and amazing skills and take pictures with them and get their autographs. The players very kindly took time to do this for everyone who wanted to do so. They also very kindly encouraged kids to pursue their dreams. (Not sure they would have done this if they that knew my eight-year-old’s idea of pursuing his dream involved planning to catapult himself and a basketball into a very tall basketball hoop.)
Here are a few photos from our evening:
A slam dunk
The Harlem Globetrotters
Signing autographs and taking photos with fans after the game
Curly Neal, who was probably the most famous Harlem Globetrotter when I was a kid, was at the game. Though retired, he was still the most popular player there. He very kindly took photos with me and signed his autograph.
As soon as they got home, Tom and Huck planned a tribute collage to the Harlem Globetrotters and sketched it out on paper. They plan to include their tickets, our photos from the evening, and the page of player autographs they got in their autograph book.
Lots and lots of fun!
See you in the stacks!
Phew, Harlem Globetrotters. That’s a blast from the past. All I ever got to see were the commercials back in the 70’s but I can still hear the music. Which I will now have stuck in my head all evening long, thank you very much.