SOCCER, MY FATHER & I

   SOCCER, MY FATHER & I

Sketch by Frank Bryan

This post was started a month ago. My vacation in Bulgaria brought back memories of the days when my parents were still alive. Every time you go back to your native country someone, something somewhere will emerge in your brain as fresh as the Black Sea fish we ate at the local restaurants. 

I always felt, I did not know my father well. He was not much of a talker at the time I was growing up. Back in the communist days, both members of the family worked; yet the burden was primarily on the women to raise the kids and do the house work. Dad was not an exception. He really knew how to weasel out of house resonsibilities. Yes, he was a bit lazy as far as house work. His work time ended at the hospital. The rest was all on my Mom's shoulders. 

He never allowed himself to look as the guy on the picture -- carrying 2 watermelons on the way home. There were no cars these days. Carrying a juicy, 10 lbs. each heavy watermelons was not a simple task for my Mom, but she did it. An officer cannot be humiliated to walk with watermelons on the street. No, no... He was given a break, because he always provided a dramatic picture of how he would look in the eyes of people with the watermelons.

It was a different story as far as sports were concerned. Attire did not matter. The most popular sport in Europe is soccer. My father loved soccer. He made me love soccer, too. It was not easy for me. As a young girl and later -- a teenager, soccer was not the first thing on my mind. But then, I fell in love with the game, the crowd, the noise, the excitement ... We went to all the games together. The little girl was there with her father no matter what. Dad did not just loved the game. He was ready to jump and help the team doctor at any second if some injury happened. In his mind he believed such a moment would come... The doctor in him did not let go even for a second. When there were head injuries, he would say in his sarcastic manner, "if this guy has several more concussions in the future, do not expect him to be exceptionally bright after he finishes his sports career." It is hard to say if he was right. Even nowadays, no one openly admits a concussion. 

Yes, I was seriously into soccer until I came to USA, where professional soccer was not popular. I want to brag about the Bulgarian soccer since it is part of my past, but since the World Cup in USA in 1994, when Bulgaria reached the semi-finals, there isn't much to brag about.  World Cup 1994 was the biggest success of the Bulgarian soccer. OK, eventually we ended up fourth, but we still have the history to remind us of the "Golden Generation" of Stoichkov (who scored 6 goals during the cup games.

Since then... I have nothing very impressive to report about soccer. I will blame it on the very tough qualifying groups for the Bulgarian team, bad luck and [who knows] big, huge, gigantic, to kill an elephant concussions.  

Picture courtesy of khunaspix/Digitalphotos.net