24 HOURS

By Your Athletic Supporter, Jack Strap

I left York around 4pm Friday & got back around that same time Saturday, so this is about those 24 eventful HOURS.  When you spend about 19 years in one place & your new place is only 1 hour away, it's really nice that we haven't had to disconnect from the people & places we luv in the Greater Reading area.  So Karen & I drove down Friday and Andrew met us there direct from Millersville.  We got take-out at one of our favorite places Boehringers (where both Britty & Andrew had worked) & took it to eat at our old house where we're in the final phase of cleanup-out.

Then it was on to the big rivalry game: Wilson @ Mifflin under the Friday Night Lights.  We've been enjoying Wilson games with the Reitz's since Chad Henne was a Wilson Freshman, so no reason to totally disconnect from that.  This was a great game with Mifflin taking a 28-7 lead, only to see Wilson score 3 times in the 4th quarter to tie it and send it to overtime where Mifflin pulled it out much to the delight of their capacity crowd.

Karen & Andrew then headed back to York, but I continued my 24 HOURS with a stay at the Poletti Bed & Breakfast.  Rather than a little candy on your pillow, they offer you a beer & some nightcap conversation.  They told me my room had a view and when I awoke to an early morning rainstorm, I opened the blinds and found that the view was of Iron Mike's house.  I then texted Iron to see if he was playing HHI & he recommended we move inside to Grace since it was raining there (I replied that it was raining next door too).

So sent out an HHI distribution email, some texts, and made some phone calls to try to cobble together an HHI game knowing regulars Swoop was going to their daughter "Kick Save" Christine's field hockey game in VA. & Mighty was heading to Happy Valley.  I was a bit concerned about getting enough players for HHI's 19th Anniversary games after this phone conversation:

Jack Strap: X-Smoker Bob, you playing hoops this morning

Bob: No, it's raining

JS: We're moving inside because of the rain

Bob: No, actually I'm going somewhere

JS: Where you going?

Bob: Allentown Fairgrounds

JS: You can't go there, it's raining

Bob: No actually I can't play because my knees have been really hurting (I can relate to that so I let it go at that point)

So Iron went to open up the Church while I headed to Da Hills to round up stragglers which included Junior High & Boo Pong and when we finally got to Grace, we had a "Bo Derek" 10.  Coach Bill & I then drafted these long-time HHI Classic team name squads:

* Voices of Reason (historically this was the Giant Lipper's team) = Diggetty Doug Bails, Alan "The Question" I-Vath-son, Boo Pong, Junior High, and Coach Bill

* Paragons of Virtue = Scholesinator, Iron Mike, Stay-Puff Marsh-mellow, Gary U.S. Bonds (with kids in tow), and Captain Jack Strap

Before Game #1, Vath (playing the role of Quick Mike whose on HHI I/R) questioned Coach's picking ability, but I thought the teams were pretty even although I gave our PoV's the edge.  And Game #1 was pretty even & tied at 14 when Coach Bill used a screen to get enough daylight to throw up a deuce that went down for the VoR victory.  As I chastised myself for not fighting thru that screen, Iron offered "who in their right mind would shoot a deuce in that situation" to which I replied the obvious answer "Coach Bill".

Game #2 was also very close with a late PoV comeback sparked by a Jack Strap deuce again resulting in a 14-14 tie at which point Junior High buried a shot from just above the foul line to win the DC for the Voices of Reason (i.e. "Win One for The Lipper").  I have to give Junior his due because without his buddies around, he played focused & was arguably the best player on the court.

Game #3 was for Paragons Pride and they showed it big-time while silencing the Voices of Reason with a 15-7 beat-down which seemingly built momentum for the Iron Man Finale (IMF) Title game, but the VoR's cleared their throats/voices with some water although Bails let his huge deuce do the talking as they Won Another One for The Lipper on this 19th Anniversary of Hills Hoops Inc.

Speaking of Lipper, after one last shower at my old house I headed over to the Reading Hospital to see him.  Upon arrival, I was startled to see Kim Shrom & someone I guessed was her husband in Lip's room.  This was an anxious moment because back in the 90's, Kim had worked for me at Morton Powder Coatings and I had to let her go after she couldn't make the jump from working in a small family business to the larger volume of a Corporation.  Upon leaving, she told me I'd hear from her husband and although I never saw or heard from them again--here they were sitting in Lip's room.  But it turned out well as Lip, Kim, Ken & I had a great conversation with the 90's never coming up thankfully.  So in my appreciation of that, I'll give their Shrom's Remodeling business some PR with this link to their website (without the normal advertising fee I charge for the HHI Blog) @ http://www.helpustayinc.com/aboutus.html.

So they departed and Lip and I had some nice one-on-one time to chat before the arrival of his family which filled the room including Lip's Wife Justi, Justi's sister (who was a Whirling Dervish of wanting to make sure John was as comfortable as possible while also being an interesting personality), Justi's Mom, and Lip's Mom (who brought some great black-and-white photos of Lip's "1st gang" as she called them which reminded me of "The Little Rascals").  

A little later sons Joe & Dave (who have grown from Joey & Davey days) arrived & it was great to see them again.  Joe is one of my facebook friends (which reminds me that I forgot to tell Lip that I posted on facebook asking for Prayers for him and among the many responders was none other than Ki-Jana Carter) and from that vantage point I think that Joe has his act together & priorities in line at Full Sail University in Florida (check it out @ http://www.fullsail.edu/about/our-story) where he's set to graduate in April 2012.  My 24 HOURS ended when Wilson Senior Dave asked for some one-on-one time with his Dad which was very encouraging.

The best news is that Lip's kidney's have started functioning again and there is a 90% chance he'll be released to go Home today which is where he really wants to be even though his 3rd floor corner hospital suite has some nice views & the nurses are great (even to idiots like me who call at 3:30am).  He's looking forward to his comfortable recliner, being able to go outside when he wants to, real food, etc.  There's also a Plan B for Magnum to bust him out of there if need be and he shared his plan with me via this text: I have a doctor's outfit & I'll discharge him, but promise not to ask why I have a doctor's outfit or when I wear it!!!  Don't want to know (TMI), but that makes for a very good capper for my 24 HOURS story.