photo credit: http://www.ballen-photos.com/
Through a child's eyes a Hero looks like many things. The child in me defined "a hero" as a person who is or has an attribute that is very brave or very valiant or very noble or just about "very" anything ..........any one thing................as long as they are good at it and / or it "does" some good for others. My hero from my childhood was one of my Dad's best buddies............... Monte LedBetter.
Monte was one of my Dad's friends that I didn't see all of the time on a daily or weekly basis but when he did come around everyone spoke "upbeat," "smiled a lot," "did a lot of hand shaking," and just in general spread good cheer. He was my hero and apparently some of the adults around me felt the same way. He was good at a game that he played in college, the same college my Dad went to. My Dad liked to tell people how Monte was doing when we were in town and the people always liked to listen and smile...................and he was my friend too.................he called me , "Foxie" every time he saw me and he liked to throw me up in the air and smile. It could be raining outside and storming inside of my house, but when Monte came to town................it didn't matter, sunshine followed.
Monte played this game and got to travel a lot. My Dad always wanted to go see him play this game, but I don't think he ever got the chance to. This game he played was called "Football" and Monte played in the NFL for the Buffalo Bills. He started out playing college ball, then for the Houston Oilers and during the years I knew him, The Buffalo Bills. He played another year for Atlanta I read years later but by then the family had lost touch. I did have a poster of my Hero , it was pretty big and it was even Autographed
To Foxie Love Monte #43 (pretty sure that is the right spelling and number)
I treasured it and I treasured the feeling he left with us. This nice looking, successful adult athlete somehow gave me a bit of self esteem that I was lacking elsewhere.......... he picked me to call "foxie!" In reality........what I thought made me special was probably justa a name he used when he couldn't remember your name ............. just like another friend's Dad, Tom, did........ he called all of us teen-aged girls, "George" and God only knows what he called the guys.... in....... somehow it didn't quite have the same effect. :)
Some believe that those that are born in the same month around the same day carry similar personality traits. If that is true, my family is in luck, as my Grandson shares his same birthday!
I am a Saints fan today but I bet when I was little I bet I rooted on the "Buffalo Bills" with vigor.....even though I never had a "Poker Face" I was a sports fan at an early age. I loved the sunshine it brought to town! Every year around football season my mind wanders to a time when I was small enough to be thrown into the air and caught.......
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