The Messina Family

The Messina Family
Barcelona 2010

Monday, August 25, 2008

Curly Neal is in the house!









Okay, if you are 35 and older...you may have memories of the Harlem Globetrotters...the classic team from the '70's...Goose Tatum, Wilt Chamberlain, Meadowlark Lemon and the head ball handler and token bald guy, Fred "Curly" Neal. Curly Neal played on the Harlem Globetrotters from 1964 to 1985, playing in over 6,000 games and visiting over 97 countries. He was a lead in the cartoon series and had a notable presence on the Scooby Doo cartoon series. (Remember that? I had forgotten!) His #22 jersey was retired this year and he was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
He came to Europe on a USO tour. Luckily they didn't forget us up here in Norway. We are such a small community that it is hard to get people to come here. However, when someone does come, EVERYONE turns out. Curly also went to the boys' school, the International School of Stavanger to meet the kids there. He taught Tim's PE class that afternoon! He is 67 now and a very nice person to talk to. He really enjoyed talking with Lily. He was amazed at how tall Joe was...he said he'll probably be at least 6 ft 2 inches! (that's Curly's guess, anyhow) Good, that means he only has about 3-4 inches to go!
Can I just tell you that I was whistling the Harlem Globetrotter's theme music for about three days!
An off topic comment...for those of you military folks out there, this was in our AAFES retail store (our Class 6, commissary and BX rolled into one). With the larger pictures, you are seeing half of the store. I said it was small!

1 comment:

jtguttman said...

Honestly, how do you have any food to cook with?? I'm glad Curly made it up to see you guys. I remember the whole group coming to Kadena, but I didn't go. P.S. Thank you for updating the blog! I was getting tired of seeing that guy in a mask! ;)