Friday Five Time

These questions were written by ayebydan on dreamwidth.

1. Did you grow up with your parents together as a unit?
Yes... 'til death did them part - Father died in 2015

2. Did you reach adulthood with four living grandparents?
Three - lost a grandfather when I was about 5, then both paternal ones in the 90s. My remaining grandmother only went last year

3. Is your extended family a close one or not?
Used to be... until the death of one uncle showed that he was the glue that held the whole thing together. Now I only see them at other funerals... This is turning into quite a maudlin entry!!

4. Does your family have a 'black sheep'?
It's probably me!! First kid to go to a 'fancy' school & then university, become a musician & not marry. A lot of the extended family thought I was gay, because I wasn't married & didn't bring girlfriends to Clan Gatherings. Which was unfair - it's not like I was bringing boyfriends instead!!

5. What is your first memory of a family member that is not your mother(s) or father(s)?
Going shopping with my paternal grandmother, riding in her wheeled shopping bag-trolley-thing
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Rebounding

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I'm not a fan of basketball

I played it, briefly, at school - finding out pretty quickly that it wasn't something I was good at - & have watched, with some bemusement & increasing irritation, as the USA's NBA marketing team took inexorable hold over generations of young Australians, beginning in at least the early 90s, to the point now where the gloingg gloingg bang rattle gloingg of kids 'shooting hoops' in Bulls 23 shirts is both ubiquitous & inescapable

Knowing that there was an Australian player in the Chicago Bulls team of the 90s, it's puzzling that none of the kids in Australia wear Luc Longley's jersey number - though given it was 13, maybe old superstitions die hard...

Or maybe it's just that they don't know about him because he was never marketed as a superstar, like Jordan, Rodman & to a lesser extent, Pippen were. Certainly Longley was notably absent from the 'best documentary of all time' 'The Last Dance'. He wasn't interviewed & is only seen in the background of some footage

A lot of people, however, do know who he is & were curious about why, or how he was omitted from the story. Including the Australian Broadcasting Commission, who have done a 2-part 'Australian Story' feature on him, where they track his move to the US College system, his start with the NBA & becoming a member of that Chicago team that won its historic 2nd 'threepeat' in the late 90s... & what it cost him both physically & emotionally

Despite my non-interest in the sport, I was interested to see what the story was. Call it latent parochial pride, but I'm impressed by the guy - his humility, his honesty, the fact he can just pick up the phone & call Michael Jordan... & the way he can fit a 7'2" body into a car seat

But I'm not about to go out & buy a basketball 'system'... or a Chicago Bulls 13 shirt, assuming I can find one!
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