More Adventures in Mexico

Many of the bus rides we took into the mountains and to nearby towns lasted for hours and sometimes we did not make it back to the hotel until very late. On one of these long trips we visited a large market up in the foothills. The air was cleaner and there was no sign of the large city buildings or even of city life. It was like we traveled through a time warp or something and came out into a village in a far distant land where pollution and the hustle and bustle of city life didn't exist. There were lots of people still, everywhere you looked there were vendors and shoppers and tourists and small shops. One thing that I noticed immediately was a man that looked like a manikin standing up on a stool or ladder or something dressed like a gypsy with a turban on his head and standing completely motionless like a statue. There was a little sign next to him that labeled and explained his actions (I couldn't read Spanish yet at that time). Apparently he was demonstrating against something. I stood a ways a way and watched him to see if he ever moved. He did change positions a couple of times but I never caught him actually doing it. Then later in the day like magic he was gone. Near where this man had been demonstrating in his own unique way there was a little store called the Taj Mahal. There was some very sweet incense burning in there and I kept going back in every so often, either to take a closer look or because one of my teammates dragged me in there to show me something. That memory has reminded me so much of a scene from one of my favorite movies, "Kelly's Heroes" with Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland. The scene from the WWII movie is the one where Sutherland's character named "Oddball" shows Kelly (played by Eastwood) his tank unit that he is in command of who happens to be laying low and taking advantage of R and R in a field behind the army's supply depot. The Taj Mahal store had a back door which I peaked out and the scene looked so similar to the "Kelly's Heroes" scene that I watch the movie sometimes just so I can sort of relive those feelings I had that day in that Mexican market. Big B had been taking a long hiatus from smoking the cactus but he mentioned to me on the bus after we left that market that he really felt like toking up for the first time in over a year. I knew what he meant. The mountain air and the ambiance of that market and of that town was as powerful a mind altering experience as any high from any drug I've ever ingested. Before leaving I bought a blue wool blanket that said 'Mexico' on it and a silver chain with a particular silver plant leaf charm attached to it from some street vendors. The silver chain I eventually lost and the blanket I ended up giving to my grandma Ruth (RIP).
We also went to another large market area in the center of the city during our stay. The smog was more severe and the area was much dirtier with more garbage everywhere. There were some sort of animal heads roasting in a big roaster and I asked what they were and one of the guys standing there responded in good English, "It's dog!" in a somewhat evil or thuggish sounding voice. We didn't stay to long at that market.
We went to a major tourist and pilgrimage sight that is well known but I can't remember for sure what it was called. Maybe "Guadalupe.." something or other? It is where a miracle was said to have happened and we got in a long line with hundreds of other people, Mexican families mostly, and traveled slowly down through the layers of the old city to what was now an underground very old hut and saw a lime deposit or something that looked like the standard image of the Virgin Mary. Seeing the layers and layers of the old city while going down into this dungeon like dwelling was as or more curious and interesting as the so called miracle itself. It is still unfathomable to me how a city over time grows up from sea level on top of itself like that. I still can't believe it. The old dwelling where the miracle occurred was like 40 feet down. It was like seeing an excavation sight at an Egyptian Tomb or at an archaeological dinosaur dig. That same day I was so thirsty I decided to buy a pop and a snack. They poured and then gave me pop in a plastic bag (they kept the bottle) and they wouldn't give me all the food I wanted which was just a taco like thing with veges on it. They wouldn't give me veges because they were trying to protect me from Montezuma's revenge, which I didn't realize at the time.
We met the ladies team one day at some nearby ancient Mayan temples. We climbed to the top of Temple of the Sun. The stairs were so small and it was easy to fall. G Money made a move on the cutest babe on the Scranton team (actually they made a move on each other simultaneously) and while the two frolicked about she ended up taking a spill and twisting her ankle while making her way down the Mayan pyramid. I purchased a Temple of the Sun clay pipe at the vendor's tables next to the parking lot. I had that pipe for a long time.
On New Years Eve day we played the Mexican National players again. The sports club we were at had visiting locker rooms that were very run down; it was not the same facility as where we played them the first time. There was water dripping everywhere and it was real dirty and old. The crowd was unruly that game. We heard that they had been waiting for hours to see the game. About the only play I remember from the JV game was on a missed free throw where I jumped in the lane as early as I could (we were getting more used to the lack of good officiating) and went up over the dunking machine from their junior team, missed grabbing the rebound with my right hand but caught it with my left and nearly lean in dunked on the missed free throw. White B talked about it after the game and had seen exactly what I had almost done. Just talking about the play got the both of us hyped and this was a basketball play that I would have loved to be a witness of (watching myself on that play on video tape would be and would have been so awesome, but no such tape exists as far as know). I played real well in both that JV and Varsity game, and I most certainly led the JV in scoring and probably the varsity again too. Both Zeke and G Money got a nice dunk each in games along the way, but this particular game would be a game and an experience that I think drew our team together and helped us go on an amazing run in conference play once we got back to the states and to our regular season play (as I have mentioned previously these games in Mexico were not NCAA sanctioned and therefore did not go on our regular season record). The Mexican team played very physical and dirty and I have already told the story about the head hunting player from the junior team. He pulled that same crap while playing against our varsity. They had their 30 some year old looking black dude with dread locks there to manhandle our big guys. Leave it up to Brute Mahone, the hick from Indiana, to start a fight. That day was the most scared for my life I have ever been. Brute almost started a fight in every game he ever played in actually. And he wasn't even a fighter! It was always all about the drama for him. That game against the Mexican national players got real physical, and eventually the refs lost control to the point where coach almost pulled his team off the court. That fool Mahone had gotten into a shoving match with the big black dude and the two of them squared off for a minute like they were really going to throw down. I sincerely was thinking that our whole team was going to get jumped by an ornery and restless mob of fans and players, 4000 Mexicans versus the 15 or so of us. I give thanks to Jah for allowing us to live through that treacherous ordeal. I was worried that we all were going to have to stand back to back and fight for our lives. That experience brought our team together like nothing else could have. I was thankful for every last player, coach, and chaperon that was with us on the trip and with us at that game.
Our assistant coach and head JV coach Shad Spock threw down some nasty dunks at an outdoor court after one of our games. Someone had the idea of having him play with us in the JV games. It didn't happen. I think I remember running a little four on four at that outdoor court with the JV players and with Spock's girlfriend (she had been a great baller in high school) after our game. The game turned into a dunk fest for Spock and I. We ate dinner on New Years with the other teams players again. G Money and I drank more tequila than I thought was humanly possible. They kept bringing these little bottles for us with the worm in it and everything. When loading on the bus outside after the meal and the festivities put on by our most gracious host I saw coach standing with some burning sparklers in his hand. He motioned me over to an outdoor hoop behind some bushes and behind him which seemed like it appeared out of nowhere. He proceeded to do a rocker step basketball move with his back to the basket and then followed it up with a turn around hook shot and tossed the burning sprinkler through the hoop. Coach was hammered. It was our one moment. He said something to me about how he really liked me as a person. I got on the bus and told some of the guys about coaches sparkler routine. Lil lamb started rapping out loud about female body parts "squooshing and sloshing" and coach's wife heard it and gasped and then stormed out of the bus disgusted. Charlie tried to get coach to let him ride on the girls bus on the way home but coach wasn't having it. I guess the tequila kicked in because I got this crazy idea to see if I could steal Chuck's idea and steal a ride on the girls bus, so I slipped off our bus and slipped into the girls bus like it was nothing. I don't have any idea where or what the coaches were doing. I didn't say much more than hello to the girls and one of them actually spoke to me and said, "Your the one who doesn't talk." Ah yes, at least they had noticed me. My lack of funds alway adversely affected my self confidence concerning the ladies, so thats why I didn't talk much. I think I wanted to meet a Latina cutie more than spend time chasing those Scranton she-ballers. They were a fairly attractive group of young ladies to be honest. After I had been conversing for a while with the ladies coach came into the women's bus where I was with a mad as hell look on his face. He said something about me not wanting to see him get angry. That stunt I pulled was like the little kid who wanted to get attention from his old man or a kid trying to see what kind of crazy stunt he could get away with to try and impress his buddies. Once I got back into the bus I was informed that I was real close to pulling off the switched bus caper but non other than Brute Mahone piped up to coach about "someone" missing. It was right before the buses were about to head off. The ride home was a long one and I barely made it back without getting sick. Damn good thing I wasn't on the ladies bus. I made my way up to our room and took a shower in an attempt to try and sober up. I also hurled in the toilet a few times. I came out of my room to find a big team meeting going on in the hall way. I was dressed only in a towel. Word was that the rest of the team was allowed to go out on the town, all except for me and G Money (and coach himself). I interrupted the meeting (that I was supposed to be a part of) and announced to everyone that they could all blame me for the trouble and then upon turning to go back to my room I dropped my towel and mooned everyone including coach Spock's girlfriend who was also Ike Lambert's sister (I forgot she was there when I did it). That was one rough night of sleep and I almost blacked out at the game the next day and even had to lie down behind the bench for a while during the game.

That is all of the stories from the list I made concerning our adventures in Mexico City. The story of our time spent in sunny Acapulco is still to come.

Ode to the Gold
Acapulco Gold. My case of deodorant was my midnight expressed. Sniff my vapors. Marked ass suckers make your wager. Montezuma's revenge, caught at the Subway on the strip, lettuce was the culprit, my hungry stomach to blame. 17th floor Ramada Inn on the balcony overlooking the Pacific and the mountains, the toilet that night was my only friend. Parasites in the water in the southern hemisphere is the revenge. Am I now immune? Was that experience my friend? The Temple of the Sun's mouth came in handy, a serpentine figurine it was, with a snakes head as the stem, and the Sun god's head in the horizon. A dude on the beach was I approached, and he pointed me to another, then another, then another, the exchange was made, and a natural remedy for my ailment was put to a flame. Some may gasp, some may be oblivious, others would think that I was just having fun. I tell you I lived it, I'm the writer, and now I give it back to the people with whom back in the day I did run. If you are reading this then now its in your head too, here is the universe revealing itself to itself and so now you see it, at least in the form of letters that make these words which you are reading. The waves in Acapulco I felt them, I saw coach get thrown from about ten feet in the water to about 2 feet in, the old man did he look when I was using a body board to ride in. The club that night we did hit it, we met these young cats and a circle we made, and then we battled, one by one, their crew representative in the middle dancing, and then one of our crew members did the same. When my turn came I entered the circle and busted out my well rehearsed short but sweet routine, earning the respect of my teammates and of the Mexican youngsters who danced with us that day. It was good to see that breakn' was alive and well in this festive land. It was one of the best nights of my life, but after that sub sandwich, the shits made me stay in my hotel room for the rest of the freakn' I'm trippn', if only I had the foresight and the money to film that trip and then I would be raking in the riches. From my balcony on the 17 floor below I watched on the strip the flashing lights of the dance clubs that lined the Acapulco coast for many miles. The story goes that on that night when I missed going out with the fellas, a beautiful Mexican girl stuck her hand down the pants of Murph that lucky fella (it was just for a gag and nothing more). I myself even met a hot and sexy young American woman (who modeled for TV commercials) in the lobby of our hotel. She wanted to go out for a beer, approached me she did but I didn't have a dime to spend because Zeke had kicked that door in. I had forgotten about that girl for years until this very moment while rewinding the images in my head from a trip I took south of the border to where the sun shines bright fiery and red and the blue waves of the Pacific Ocean come splashing in. Have you ever met a member of the opposite sex who you have that instant special connection with? But do to circumstances you were unable to get down or get close or experience a love or even just a friendly affair? Maybe at that moment in the lobby in our hotel in Acapulco I should have asked the lovely lady to wait while I tried to borrow some money from one of the guys, and then maybe a night or a lifetime of difference could have occurred for me there. Some other interesting moments did happen while in the city of the golden sun. My teammate G Money was jocked by a chaperon in front of the whole team and everyone at a meeting we had, I think someone sold me out for the clandestine activity I had done. The praise G Money got was ridiculous, and everyone just kind of smirked, when this old guy got up and made a speech like he was John Wooden. "One player on this team represents the attitude of a winner and of a Spartan, and that player is Brag Havatake!" was that old man's war cry; which games had he been watching? Let him step on the court and try to run. One last tidbit or two of memories about that great city, there was a bar on the strip called "Happy Hour" which had drink specials all day long. Rundy and Havatake made it their home base, and drank pina collatas from dusk to dawn. Rundy was caught on the beach by the cops after hours one night with a player from the Scranton squad, he then had to pay off the cops to avoid more harassment. I caught Chucky Amsterdam creepn' from a room of a Scranton player, that New Orleans personality was more than a woman could bare. Finally upon our departure I said goodbye to the hotel high rise and to the lobby that had the indoor waterfalls, mirrors, and rock garden indoor pond. On the bus ride to the airport just like the bus ride in I saw huge "gold" plants growing in the jungle. Upon boarding the airplane Rundy was the last one on, little Spanky was part Mexican from his mom who was from the land of the sun. He made a vow he would return some day and I shared his sentiment. I did not want to leave. We all made it through customs, the gold in the deodorant intact, "Represent your team, your school and your country" were the words coach had departed to us, so I did in my own way, it was about way more then just having fun. I know it was unwise and even stupid it was, to smuggle my ideas of freedom, choice, and justice as a practitioner of ideas of a woman named Jane that was grown in the land of the sun. We returned via Air Mexicana to Chicago in winter, a blizzard was what we came back to. Coming home was so depressing for me, but we had the rest of the season to look forward to and a new vast arsenal of memories, from a trip of a lifetime to a place where the Aztecs once ruled and where the Mayans came from.