When my son was eight years old and we were living in Orlando, he was a fanatical fan of the Orlando Magic. When he heard that an actual honest-to-God Orlando Magic player (Donald "D-Rock" Royal) was signing autographs at the local mall, he made it very clear that he absolutely, positively HAD to go there.
My youngest daughter got caught up in the excitement as well. She spent an entire afternoon creating a portrait of Donald Royal for him to sign. Six year olds have interesting perspectives! She drew an enormous black head on a rather stunted body, with big red ruby lips and *gulp* eyeliner. It looked like a Blackface caricature from the 1930s!
We went to the mall and stood for 45 minutes in line to meet Mr. Royal. It was a very efficient operation, a handler took the ball/jersey/hat for him to sign, a quick autograph, then the handler would shout "next!".
My son got his beloved Magic baseball cap autographed, and the handler then took my daughter's "portrait".....he looked at it distastefully and held it by one corner, as if he were being asked to handle wet toilet paper. USED wet toilet paper.
He passed the picture to Donald Royal and I'd have given anything for a video camera to have captured that moment. Royal's jaw dropped and then clenched, his face clouded and he scowled, then he looked up and saw a sweet starry-eyed six year old girl smiling ear to ear...and he melted.
He smiled and motioned her up to the table where he was signing items, and began asking her questions about the picture, where she went to school, etc. Where everyone else got a bare signature on their item, my daughter was rewarded with a full paragraph from Mr. Royal "Best wishes for your upcoming school year to a very talented young artist, Sincerely, Donald Royal, Orlando Magic Number 5".
Of course, my son was insanely jealous that Royal had taken the time to talk to her when everyone KNEW he was the number one Orlando Magic fan in the entire country!
It's been ten years and she still brings that up from time to time to get his goat!
4 comments:
Congratulations on your blogfrom a fellow Edge member.
OK... Bob, your strange fascination with clowns and handcuffs is really starting to freak me out.
Maybe a blog isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe you should switch hobbies to... ummm... something more... ummm... normal?
Like... ummm... well... gosh, there's gotta be SOMETHING normal and not-dangerous...!
:o) Cynthia
oh, like you're one to talk about normal, Cynthia! :-P LOL
Great blog, Bob!
Hi Bob!
I like your post - I can relate to this!!
I bought a CD that I like of the artist FERGIE - I play it over and over in the car. Now my daughter Sabrina who is soon to be 10-years-old likes it too!
The songs I thought were "MY SONGS" are now "HER SONGS" and well basically she dominates the CD and the radio and...
Thanks for sharing that you have a new post on the Champions EDGE !!
Sherri
==============================
http://sherriraftery.blogspot.com/
http://www.worldchampionsedge.com/edge/index.cfm?affiliateid=936
www.district31.org
http://talkingtoastmasters.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment