Super Memories

It's Super Bowl weekend, which always brings back floods of memories for me. So many youth group parties and chili dinners with old friends are stored away in my vault. But for the past 10 years, we have spent the day at Winners Sports Bar here in Tampa watching the game and eating good food. The tradition started with Marilyn, Will, and me but quickly became a "family event. Michelle joined in, along with her brother Alex and much of the rest of her family. And for the past 7 or 8 years, Lisa Jewett joined in the fun. Her son Scott came at least once as well. Tomorrow will be another first without her, another day full of happy memories and the sadness of not being able to create new ones. I've missed her during the playoffs when she would ask who was still alive for the big game and "who do we want to win?" She knew my loathing of the Patriots and knew if they were playing we wanted the other team. But she had no great knowledge of football. So game night she would sit near me and ask a lot of questions. And, as always with Lisa, the questions were a hoot! Things like:
* Why don't the coaches wear uniforms like they do in baseball?
* If you have offensive and defensive coordinators, why do you need a head coach?
* Why can't the first guy who touches the ball (the center) just pick it up and run with it? 
* The signals the refs give for penalties are too confusing. Why can't there be a different color flag for each penalty?
* Can you substitute in the middle of a play like in hockey?

You get the idea. Lisa also added her own unique flavor to the party. In 2013 we had to find her a Baltimore Ravens jersey for their game against the 49ers. Why? Her son Scott's high school mascot had ben the Ravens, and she loved Baltimore's purple jerseys. In 2014, Seattle was playing Denver. We were rooting for The Broncos and Peyton Manning. But the crowd at Winners was overwhelmingly against us. Periodically one of the fans would start a cheer by yelling, "SEA!" And the rest would respond by yelling, "HAWKS!"  After several occurrences of this, Lisa turned to me and said that she didn't understand. Why were they yelling "HAWKS SEE?" She was not hearing the initial sea, only the response and second sea. So, of course, we laughed for quite a while, and we did a HAWKS SEE cheer several times after that.

Over the last 4 years of her life, Lisa always came for the fun, even though she left early most nights and couldn't eat for several others. She made me call her the moment the 2018 game ended and Will's beloved Eagles had actually beaten the hated Patriots. It's was just another way she was a huge part of our family.

So enjoy the game. Throw a few brightly colored flags and make up your own penalties. And oh by the way...this year WE will be cheering for the Chiefs!!!

Throwback Thursday: My 10 Favorite Super Bowls

It's a Throwback Thursday, and today I remember my favorite Super Bowls, one of the great USAmerican sporting events. Each year parties are thrown, beverages are consumed, and MILLIONS of chickens sacrifice their wings as we enjoy the championship game of the NFL. I am old enough to have watched at least part of all 48 previous games, and the Super Bowl has always been special to me. Among other things, I am among the very few (perhaps ONLY!) youth pastors to have ever had the actual Lombardi Trophy visit my office, back in 2003 (see picture) when the Bucs won it all. I will be watching again this Sunday as the Patriots and the Seahawks do battle. Today it seemed it might be fun to look back and share my 10 favorite games. You will notice right away it is MY list- no mention of a Patriots victory to be found anywhere! So here we go...

10) III- The New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in a game that Broadway Joe Namath guaranteed they would win. (1969)
  9) XXXI-  The Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 and Brett Favre gets his only Super Bowl win. (1997)
  8) VII- The Miami Dolphins finish the season 17-0 with a 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins. (1973)
  7) XVI- The San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in the game that turns Joe Montana into a legend. (1982)
  6) XXV- The New York Giants beat the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in Tampa as Scott Norwood missed a game winning field goal on the last play of the game. (1991)
  5) XLII- The Giants bring an end to the Patriots run at unbeaten immortality, 17-14, in a game featuring the unbelievable "helmet catch" by David Tyree. (2008)
  4) XLVI- The Giants take down the Patriots again, 21-17. That's 3 Patriot losses on my list.  That is not an accident!  :)  (2012)
  3)  XIII- The Pittsburgh Steelers hold off the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 in one of the first real Super Bowl thrillers! (1979)
  2) XXXIV- The St. Louis Rams and Kurt Warner defeat the Tennessee Titans 23-16 as the Titans game winning drive falls one yard short as time runs out. (2000)
  1)  XXXVII- The Bucs win, dominating the Oakland Raiders 48-21 and getting Jon Gruden and company their rings.  (2003)

So there's my list- I'd love to hear yours. Bonus pick: 1986, Bears 46- Patriots 10. Good times!

Super Memories

We're coming up on Super Bowl Sunday, and I have been flashing back to past years and parties with my various youth groups. Here are VII memories that came to mind from my XXVIII years in student ministry. I am still waiting for Amber Herrick Irby to refresh my memory of the great Super Bowl Sunday fight in Kissimmee. That's another story for another day, but suffice it say Super Bowl Sunday was never dull. The one thing I don't miss about those youth group days was the annoying question the week before the party- "Hey Carl...what are going to do at the Super Bowl party?"  Ugh. WATCH THE GAME, PEOPLE!!!

1)  It's weird, but I have absolutely no memory of any kind of Super Bowl party during my years (1978-83) at New Garden Friends Meeting. I remember Super Bowls from every other stop on my career- even one from 2001 at the Union Church of Hinsdale, IL, when a large crowd filled our little house to watch the game. I was only in Hinsdale for one Super Bowl. But I have nothing from New Garden...at least not Super Bowl related. I do, however, remember watching the 1980 US men's hockey team win the Olympic gold medal in the church basement!

2)  My first Super Bowl party after moving to High Point and Springfield Friends Meeting was cut short by a snow storm that led to an exciting couple of days (see A Super Surprise). The Giants beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI on January 25, 1987.

3)  We had several parties at the home of Butch and Barbara Moran while we were at Springfield Friends Meeting. I can't remember if they were really youth parties, or if most of the youth were just there because they were related to the Morans!  In any case, these were fun because doing anything with Butch was fun, and they had a 55" screen...which in the early 90s was HUGE!!!

4)  A group of my friends used to get together for the game and make huge crock pots full of chili, blending a variety of recipes. Somewhere along the way, this changed to me making Mexican Pile-Up for the the multitudes of  youth who would show up for our parties. For the uninitiated, pile-up is basically a taco salad you pile on a plate using chips instead of a shell. I have fed a lot of kids a lot of pile-up on Super Bowl Sunday over the years...but I always made them bring the desserts!

5)  The party got serious on January 26, 2003. We had moved to Wesley Memorial UMC in Tampa in 2001, and now we found our hometown Buccaneers in the big game. I knew I would be irritable and grumpy if I didn't get to pay full attention to the game, so we decided to not have a youth group party- sort of! We invited only a few select youth and adults who we knew would watch the games and hosted it at our house, complete with Wing House wings! My Bucs whipped the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, and as the game ended we went outside and listened as the entire city of Tampa honked their car horns in celebration.

6)  The following year (Feb. 1, 2004) was a perfect example of why I often got frustrated on Super Sunday. We had the party in the Fellowship Hall at Wesley and drew a big crowd- about half of whom cared anything about the game. I spent most of the evening chasing kids back into the room and cooking. We went through 30 pounds of ground beef in the Mexican Pile-Up that night. I was in the kitchen at halftime, trying to clean up a bit, when Jacquie Thomson came running in a told me that Justin Timberlake had just exposed Janet Jackson's breast in what came to be known as the Wardrobe Malfunction. And I had missed it, along with most of the first half. At least the game got really interesting after that, even though the hated Patriots won.

7)  My final youth Super Bowl party was a great one. We held it in the Fellowship Hall at Trinity UMC in Waycross, GA on Feb. 4, 2007. I ran the cable through a VCR and into a video projector and we watched the game projected on a wall that had to be 90" wide!  WE also ran the audio through our sound system, and we were better than any sports bar around. As a matter of fact, we were illegal. The NFL actually stopped some churches in Indianapolis from doing just what we did, limiting the size of the projection to 60". We charged ahead, eating pile-up, Wong's Chinese, Dick's Wings and all kinds of goodies while the Colts beat the Bears and made Tony Dungy the first African-American ever to coach a Super Bowl winner. Good times, and a great way to go out!

Over the past 7 years our tradition has changed, but the party continues. This Sunday I'll be at Winners Sports Bar here in Tampa to watch the game with Marilyn, Will, Lisa Jewett and a crowd of strangers. The owner of Winners is a huge Seahawks fan and the place will be loud and crazy in support of Seattle. So I get to watch the game, I don't have to cook and we can be as obnoxious as we want while cheering against the Pretty Boy and Hoodie. We always have a blast. But still...I miss all the excitement of those youth parties, and I always will.

Because of Jesus,

Saturday Shout Outs!

Happy Saturday!!! We're approaching the end of January and the unofficial national holiday that makes us all stop, fix some of our favorite foods, gather with friends and wait to see happens next. I'm speaking, of course, of the impending twin birthday celebrations of Cyndi Reep Browning and Teresa Reep Tysinger (FUMC-Kissimmee) this coming Thursday! Oh...and there's that whole Super Bowl thing going on as well. Anyway it feels like there's a lot to shout about, so if anyone still reads these things (HINT: Leave a comment!) I believe that is exactly what I will do. Shout. Here we go!

* To all of our friends living in areas where you are cold and getting some slippery precipitation, here's a little salt in your wounds. Our air conditioner has not been working properly this week-  and that MATTERS here in Florida...  Sorry. :)

* Last Friday I e-mailed copies of Even Better Than Before to those who requested it (if you want one just give me a holler!), and by Saturday morning I have received two positive reviews. My friends Susan Tuggle and Donna Myers (both of Quaker Lake fame) had read it in one night. I am left to assume that either the book is much easier to read than it was to write or that 60,000 words are not as many as I thought. Or maybe it was like a train wreck. They just couldn't look away! :)  In any case, I appreciated their efforts and the feedback. Can a digital book still be a "page turner?" Things that make you go hmmm...

* It is rare for me to have a team I care about in the Super Bowl. Usually I am one of those lame guys who says, "I just hope it's a good game." This year is different. While the Seahawks are not my favorite team by any means, the Patriots are at the top of my despised list. This will be a good game as long as the Seahawks win, and will be a GREAT game if they "deflate" the Pretty Boy and company by 40 points or so. Anybody coming over to watch with us?

* Erin Augenblick Shannon (FUMC-K) had a birthday this week. There has also been a lot going on in her life after her husband's business burned in a fire a few weeks back. Plus she lives in Michigan and it's January. So it seems like a really good time to add Erin to your prayer list. She's certainly on mine.

* A number of you who are previewing my book for me have had sweet things to say about it, and I appreciate your willingness to read it so much. Steve Semmler (New Garden Friends Meeting) let me know he enjoyed it. Denise May Langley (New Garden & QLC), who pushed me to both start and finish the project, has given me her thumbs up. Our friend Lisa Jewett has read more than 5 pages, which I count as a win for me- even if she is mad because the book is making her want to go to Myrtle Beach, eat hot doughnuts and finish off the day with dinner at Calabash! Brook Teoli Phelps & Lisa Krause Spires (of my FUMC-K group) both let me know they they were having a hard time putting it down. Even Marilyn has started reading it! Lisa Spires texted me the picture you see here. She may have unlocked the key to enjoying my novel- read while enjoying a cold adult beverage. Fits right in with the storyline! I am eagerly awaiting more reviews, more questions and more suggestions.

* Erin Moran Hill (from our Springfield Friends Meeting days) & family (including our dear friends Butch and Barbara Moran) were at Walt Disney World this week where despite an unfortunate illness they still managed to have a good time. Jeremy Godwin and family (also Springfield) were there as well. Weeks like this remind me how ridiculous it is and how angry it makes me that I can't go there and meet up with old friends. Ugh. Ok, I vented. Time to move on.

* My favorite random question anyone has asked me about my book so far- "Does Brent only have 7 toes too?"

* Spring Training games for Major League Baseball begin in about 40 days. This March, for the first time in what feels like forever, I will be free to travel a bit and catch a few games outside of Tampa. Who's ready to join me?

* If she were local I know that Ashley Goad (Springfield) would be my baseball buddy for the entire month. But in other Ashley news, she is now a proud homeowner in Shreveport, LA. Congratulations, Prudence! I know you will love your new home for the 10 weeks a year you are actually in the country!  :)

* And finally...I am totally addicted to the new tv series Scorpion. I love the characters and the interaction between them. Plus the action is great without being too over-the-top. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot. Tell Walter that Carl sent ya!

That's it for today. Have a blessed weekend. And thanks for reading!

Because of Jesus,