Fiji grows some big boys. How do I know this, without ever having gone there or met any Fijians in person? Because the Fijian Men's Rugby team were "in town" for a match against the Canadian Men's team as part of the Pacific Nation Cup.
I say "in town" because Ottawa's Rugby venue isn't in Ottawa. It's out in a field somewhere, bordered on all four sides by more fields. The address is listed as being in Nepean, but I don't believe it at all...that shit's waaaaay too rural to be even considered "south Nepean." Walk two miles in any direction from the Rugby park, and you will see it's only rural fields. Anyway, I opted to cheer for the Fijians because there was a player who was pulling off the Mr T. look...how could you dare cheer for Canada when Mr. T. is running the pitch?
But sitting there in the stands, I noted a pair of parents who carried in their young children who were dressed in their pajamas. The boy was maybe 5 or 6, and the girl was maybe 4. The kids weren't tired, but obviously mum and dad had driven in from somewhere and they expected the kids to fall asleep on the way home. Instead, the kids romped along the sidelines. At one point, I caught myself thinking 'So that's what I must have looked like at the ball diamond.'
You see, I was one of the Fort Smith Rowdies diamond rats. Daddy was the team coach, and I was a familiar fixture at practices, games and tournaments. The team even got me a little tiny team jacket, which I think I may still have somewhere. Not a lot of the guys had kids, and certainly the other kids who came out were their boys; I was the only girl who wasn't a baby, though with my short hair and rough and tumble tomboy manners, you wouldn't know it. I spent a lot of nights and weekends scampering around the park and climbing the fences and bleachers with the other kids.
That little trip down memory lane was courtesy of Pajamas at a Rugby park.
In the olden days...
...Wish you were here.
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