Vintage Larry

While we were in Las Vegas, we stopped at a vintage clothing
store called The Attic. Lots of 70's clothes, wigs, boas, stuff
like that. Lynn tried on a couple of wigs and boas and looked
all glamorous for the camera. However, in the very balmy
upstairs (their air conditioner wasn't working), I found this
AWESOME Larry Bird basketball jersey. I SAW LARRY BIRD
PLAY IN A JERSEY JUST LIKE THIS during the 1976-77 season
when Indiana State visited Valparaiso. We were regular
Valpo U attendees at old Hilltop Gym so it was a pretty big
deal when someone of his caliber came to town. Later, he
would become one of my Dad's favorite players when Bird
played for the Boston Celtics. (Happy Birthday tomorrow
Dad...I know you're still reading my blog!)
Anyway, on a total impulse purchase, I bought it (it was
fairly reasonable), and it actually fits me! However, I doubt
it will ever make me play basketball as well as Larry Bird!

Butler Bulldogs

Tonight, the men's basketball team from Butler University literally
missed winning the Division One basketball championship by
inches, when a last second shot that would have one the game
bounced off the rim as time expired. I'm not a huge sports fan
but I was cheering for Butler not only because they are a small
school from Indiana, but because they were one of the first college
teams I ever saw play basketball. Growing up, my parents were
long time backers of Valparaiso University's basketball team. We
saw lots of games at the old Hilltop Gym. I saw the DePaul Blue
Demons play there in the 80's when they were the number 1 team
in the nation and I saw Larry Bird play there when Indiana State was
an up and coming power. Most of the early games when I was young
though were against other tiny schools, before Valparaiso was a
Division 1 team. They played in the Indiana Collegiate Conference,
which included Valparaiso, Evansville, St. Joseph's, Indiana Central,
Wabash, DePauw and Butler. Over the years, Valpo and Butler have
always played each other and now they are back in the same
conference. Butler has been very good the past few seasons and
Valpo made it to the Sweet 16 a few years ago. As Butler progressed
through this year's tournament, I'm sure they made all of the the
other small schools, especially in the Midwest proud. I know my
Dad would have been glued to the TV, watching them. I'm sure he's
proud of them and the great effort they made tonight.

VPZ

My Mom had an appointment today so while we were
waiting, I geeked out and went to visit the Porter
County Municipal Airport (VPZ). I knew I only had
a few minutes until my Mom's appointment was finished
and fortunately, that's all it took to look over this
tiny airport. It's so small, it makes our home airport
in Grand Junction look like O'Hare. Even though it's
small and has no scheduled flights or airlines, it's
very well appointed and has a friendly staff. I think
that most of it's traffic comes from Valparaiso
University. I attribute my geek-love of airports
because of our trips to VPZ when I was very young.
We would stop at Dairy Queen for Mr. Mistys and watch
the small planes take off and land at the "airplane port".
On several vacations we stopped at O'Hare in Chicago and
the Green Bay airport in Wisconsin as actual tourist
destinations. Not your typical tourist fare but I think
my Dad was interested as well and it was free. These
pre-TSA days were great for airport aficionados.
So today, my visit to the airport in Valpo was kind of
like going home. I felt very comfortable there.