Rams are in white

 

Rams are in white






     To be a true Los Angeles Rams fan was frustrating and fun. As kids we never wavered from loving our team with the really cool helmets and mostly crappy won-loss records. When I paged through my Dad's old game programs I used to dig seeing Crazy-Legs Hirsch, Deacon Dan Towler or Tank Younger from the brief time when the team dominated and actually won an NFL championship in 1951. My first football game was the Rams-Redskins charity game where the teams played with a white football since it was uncharacteristically played at night. After the 50's  however it was always a journey of disappointments but heroes in horns always emerged and were loved. Jon Arnett was an idol and we heard the old people talk about Bob Waterfield, Tom Fears or Vitamin T. Smith. By the time we had a television we could at least see the gridiron men on KNXT (channel 2) and knew we were not as good as the Colts or Packers but the Rams were OUR team. Management was tight with the payroll but when the team bottomed out in 1962 they began tinkering to try to regain despairing fans. One of the changes they made was to adopt new uniforms in the mid-1960's. When future savior Roman Gabriel joined the team they went to a white uniform with blue numerals and the trademark helmet horns. By 1969 we wise guy Ram fans had regular seats in Section C, a temporary bleacher set up in the vast peristyle end of the Coliseum. We felt we knew everything about the franchise and took our seats for a few years as the Rams got very good but not good enough to win it all. One Sunday as we awaited play a business man with clueless client in tow passed by our seats on the aisle and said briskly "Yeah, the Rams are in white!" All of the we veterans chuckled to ourselves and later used to phrase to express something so obvious it needed no explanation. This is how language evolves.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paul Knowlton's White Lotus

Image
 Paul Knowlton's White Lotus \      It is ironic that this post is titled something that means nothing to the protagonist. Paul, Zeke, "the Prince," "Senor Suerte" or the Snail (I never called him that.) My old pal just created a memorable vacation on the island of Oahu where the mean old world was a far off nightmare and the closest thing to stress was choosing which kind of massage you would request. Paul was the second friend in my life and we grew up about a block away from each other. We were Catholic boys and loved sports that created a bond lasting seventy years. This connection continued from grammar school to High School, to Community College to University. We were roomates from 1968 to 1972 and our families had a solid respect for one another. Paul grew up in a family of nine kids at a tract house in South Gate when the common man lived the American dream. Then again with 11 mouths to feed the American dream can only stretch so far. It is a cliche but ...
Read more

alright mother

Image
  alright mother- “You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what’s in your heart.” —Carol Ann Duffy  Greg was always delighted by a story told by his mother in law about a "sortie" dinner party attended by a Doctor "Putty" Putnam who had been forced to attend an opera by his wife. When asked by a clueless guest if he enjoyed the opera, his response was  "fuck you!" When I was visiting Bear Cove and sitting next to the matriarch Greg goaded her into telling the tale. But a rum n' coke had loosened "Minnie's" tongue and when she got to Putty's answer she blurted a rather hard FUCK YOU!  Roy, hearing his bride curse thusly said across the table "Alright mother!"
Read more

the Summer of 42

Image
 the Summer of 42      While Greg had a fine career as an Architect and worked his entire life without any bum periods I feel he may have missed his true calling. The man had an uncanny ability to recall and recite lines of dialogue from stage, film and TV scenes that strummed his heart-strings. I mean he could mesmerize our group when he was moved to repeat the  introduction to "the Fall of the House of Usher," or scenes from "Double Solitaire" with a deep emotional expression. I could ask him to answer a line from the underrated film adaptation of Moby Dick by saying "Was it not Moby Dick that took off your leg?" His face would redden like he was expressing angst and he would moan "Aye...twas Moby Dick!" We have heard before about his tavern recitation that caused his cousin Evan to be booted from the Sunshine Meat, Fish and liquor Company and suffer a lifetime ban but these performances were rare. Dutch courage might help but his monologues w...
Read more