The Olympics

Here it is another year of Olympics which has given me the opportunity to pause and think about my own Olympic experiences - though few.

When I was 12 years, my family was living in Japan and the 1964 Olympics were being held in Tokyo. One Sunday all of the members of our tiny church branch boarded a school bus which was taking us to our District Conference one Sunday morning at another military base. As we neared the Toyko area, we had the opportunity of seeing a portion of the "walking race" take place with some of the Olympic participants.

Then in 1996, the Olympics came to Atlanta. Corey and I were able to witness a portion of the torch run one day when the runner came down Highway 319 heading south towards Tallahassee. We stood at the end of our street and walked the runner pass us. That was quite spectacular for us. In the week that the Olympics were to begin, someone working in my office announced that he had tickets to the Women's Field Hockey match that Saturday and would not be able to go. Would anyone like to have his tickets? No one else said they did, other than me, so I "volunteered" to use them. I realize it wasn't like getting to go to the opening ceremonies or some more well-known event, but hey, it was the Olympics and it was free! Consequently, Corey and I went to the Olympics. We had stayed up late on Friday night watching all the opening ceremonies and then got up very early for our drive to Atlanta. We had to park our car outside of Atlanta and then rode a bus to the Olympic venue where the field hockey game was going to take place. It was a very, very hot day and after the match we walked around some of the other venues soaking up the Olympic spirit.

When we decided it was time to head back to the car, that's when we experienced real problems. We couldn't find a bus to take us back to our car. Since it was the first day of the bus routes, the "bugs" hadn't been worked out and we were suffering for it. If I remember correctly, I think we waited for almost three hours before a bus finally arrived to take us. I do remember this - it was hot, the bus was crowed, we were tired and we were ready to leave. But we can say we have made it to the Olympics - can you?