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This is Intentionally Vicarious… I’m Todd Youngblood… And I was just sitting here at my desk pondering aimlessly… And smiling to myself… As a conversation with an old friend came to mind.
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It all started with a random bumping into one another on Facebook – which I use only infrequently. That led to a phone call and our first conversation in literally decades. Erik was the Center, and I was the Right Guard for the 1971 through ‘74 football seasons at Brown University. We were not only teammates, but also buddies off the field. Those are important background facts for the story that has me smiling.
Late in 1972, after the season had ended, we were walking across campus together on the way to pick up our varsity letter sweaters. We were joking about how obsolete and dopey an idea letter sweaters were for we sophisticated guys at this sophisticated college in the super-sophisticated 1970s. It was obsolete and dopey, but still… Both of us were, in fact, walking all the way across campus to pick them up.
He asked me, “Will you ever wear the damned thing?” “No,” I replied. “Except for when I get to be an old man and I’m out raking leaves.” Ha, ha, ha…
Well… 47 years later on that phone call, good old Erik reminded me of my comment and asked if I ever wore the letter sweater while raking leaves. I hadn’t, but miraculously, I found it stuffed into the back of a drawer in my guest room. So yeah, I did think it was obsolete and dopey. And I never did wear it. But I still knew where it was after the 4+ decades and 11 homes I’ve had since my collegiate days.
Check out the photo in the show notes. The moral of this story? Always do what you say you are going to do.
Think about it…
…plus Erik & I plan to meet up for Brown/Yale in the fall!
You’re right. The letter sweater does not enhance your personal magnetism. But those varsity jackets we had in high school were a different story. We wore them all the time and thought we were studs. We’ll have to ask the ladies next year at our 50th if that was more imagination than fact. I still have my Quakertown High School jacket in the closet. Like me it is a tad ragged and worn. And wonder of wonders, it must have shrunk.