My mom and dad were married, had two kids, and had gotten divorced before I could remember anything. A few years later, my mom remarried. For the rest of my life, my stepfather became my dad, and my "dad" stepped into the role of Bobby.

For as long as I can remember, Bobby and I have had an interesting relationship. He has been more of an older friend than a parent. Sort of a guy twenty years older than me that I just happen to know. We've done lot of cool things together most of which have something to do with sports. We've been to Atlanta to see the Braves play a few times and we've been to see the Carolina Panthers play a few times.

Well, this past weekend we renewed our do things related to sports tradition, and he and Brian, my brother, came to the NCSU vs Maryland football game. Kim and I go to all the home State games, and one of our friends had some extra tickets to our final game of the 2007 season, so I invited Bobby to come out with us.

As always, we got to the parking lot a few hours before game time for some tailgating. Just like any good tailgate, this one was filled with food, football tossing, and cornhole.

Trying to be inclusive, I invited Bobby to throw football with us. At some point, it hit me that this was the first time in my nearly twenty-eight years of life that I had ever thrown a football with this man, who had a part in my creation. Bobby is definitely the source of my height and my athleticism. He played several sports in high school, and by what I understand, he went on to play some sport in college.

After the game, we were walking back to the car, and we got to talking about playing sports. We're both "has beens", and that's what "has beens" do. We talked about playing sports in high school, and he said something that hit home with me. He said, "Yeah, I played basketball, baseball, and football in high school. i ran track on the weekends, and I even got talked into wrestling one season, but if I could do it all over again, I would just pick one. I was good at everything, but never great at anything." I bet I've said that a thousand times.

Since then, I can't help thinking about how little I know about him. I've also been thinking about how little I know about my mom. These two people somehow met, got married, had two kids, got divorced, all before they were twenty-two, and I know next to nothing about how all that happened. It just hit me that I am quickly approaching thirty, and I don't know very much at all about the lives of my parents when they were my age or younger.

i'm making it my goal that over the next year, I am going to learn my parents' stories.

Do you know who your parents are? Better yet, do you know who they were?

Labels: family, sports