In April 1984 I moved my family to London, Ontario, then a small city of 250,000 people. Situated on the Thames River in South Western Ontario, London is halfway between Detroit and Toronto. It was a great place to bring up kids and had a small, but growing Jewish community. We were told when we arrived that the traffic is very light and you can get anywhere in London within 20 minutes. My response was always, “but then what?”.  There wasn’t much to do at that time in London; so when anything from outside London showed up tickets were snapped up immediately.

I’ve always been a fan of The Harlem Globetrotters. From the jazzy warm up tune of Sweet Georgia Brown through the skillful ball play to the clowning antics of Meadowlark Lemon and Curly O’Neal they always entertain. So when I heard that The Globetrotters were coming to town I phoned the London Gardens, the local arena where the London Knights hockey team played and got the best available seats for me and my son Adam. The best available seats were in the nose bleed section but how far from the court can we be in a small stadium in a small town.

We got to the stadium with plenty of time, picked up our tickets and headed to our seats. We were so far away from the court that I had trouble seeing and I knew Adam, who was 8 years old and wore thick glasses, would not be able to see at all.

So back we went to the box office and in my best “Dale Carnegie Graduate” manner, explained our dilemma. Without any fuss the tickets were immediately switched and we were given ground floor seats 2 rows back from the court. We took our seats during the warm up. What a view! Perfect! Adam could see everything. Everything that was until the warm up finished and the players returned to their bench. Now all we could see was a wall of black and white giants. Never mind Adam, I couldn’t see anything either. So I stood up and to the back of the players I said with a smile, “hey guys”. They turned around and I told them that now they were seated my son couldn’t see a thing. One of the giants stood up and took Adam’s hand and led him across the court with me following. The giant let go of Adam while he got two chairs for us to sit on right next to the court in line with the players’ bench. We were actually on the court; no one was in front of us. And that is where we watched the game. It felt like we were part of the game and in fact we were; at least Adam was. Part way through the game one of the Globetrotters jokingly mistook Adam for the ball, picked him up and started running around the court with him tucked under his arm. The crowd roared, I roared and Adam giggled.

What a night for him. 8 years old and already playing with the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Globetrotters really are wonderful ambassadors for the sport and for humanity.

Last Sunday I got a Chanukah gift from my daughter-in-law. It was 4 tickets for me, Adam and his two sons to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Maybe the best gift I ever got and a chance to relive a magical night.