I re-post this in honor of the King's birthday...

I remember back in the 70's when my sister and I would stay up late on the weekends and watch the Friday or Saturday night late movies. In those days there were only 3 major TV stations and no VCR's or DVD players. Ultimately there would always be an Elvis movie rerun. As bad as the acting was, they still remind me of my youth and I get a kick out seeing them from time to time.

I actually remember the day Elvis died 31 years ago. We lived in a rent house on south Johnson street in Enid and my mom's best friend called. She told me to tell my mom that Elvis had died. I don't think I really thought that much of it because by that time Elvis had faded from the spotlight.

Later in life I made a trek to Graceland on my way to the Atlanta Summer Olympics. For some reason I felt the need to find a tiny memento of the King. On the tour there were signs posted and cameras watching every step so it wasn't like I could just nab a book or something from his library. I would have taken a light bulb from a lamp if I could have reached one. Everything was kept pretty much out of arms reach.

As the tour began to wind down I knew my chances were running out to leave with a part of Elvis history. That's about when I saw a glimmer of hope. It was the grooviest, greenest, lushest shag carpet I had ever seen! It was like there was a mile of it covering the famous jungle room. I'll have you know that green is my favorite color and I wanted some of that green shag carpet!

Although there was a rope keeping me away from my lush, green pasture I quickly noticed that the carpet actually went all the way up the walls! Wow! What luck. As the tour exited the jungle room area, I plucked one single strand of green shag carpet from one of the jungle room walls.

I still have that strand today and if you feel the need to be close to Elvis, just give me a call and we'll break it out and watch Jail House Rock together.

Labels: 70's, Curtis Tucker, funny moment, Memories, Olympics

Okay, is anyone else thinking some of these Olympic sports are a little weird? Women's BMX? Are they for real? GIRLS don't ride BMX bikes!!

How is equestrian an Olympic sport? It's a horse. Jumping. Now, if the horse were on the rider and he had to carry the horse over the jumps, that would be a real sport.

What about trampoline? Sure there's a bunch of twisting and flipping but is it sporty? What if they combined trampoline with dodge ball like we did as kids? One guy on each side of the trampoline trying to bean the jumper. Talk about doing flips and twists! That was a man's sport.

Synchronized diving? Was one person diving not boring enough? I think I would rather they go all the way to team diving. Think about this... 15 guys stacked 5 high on each others backs. The team captain runs at them from behind and knocks the pyramid off the platform. The divers all have to do a flip and land at the same time. Think about it.

Rhythmic gymnastics? Shouldn't these gals be at Cirque Du Soleil? Now what if they combined this "sport" with knife throwing instead of ring and ribbon throwing. Talk about ratings through the roof.

How can you have beach volleyball but not have hacky sack?

Shooting? I thought the point of having extra security was to prevent shooting.

If they are going to come up with such wacky Olympic sports I'd like to suggest my own list.

1. Underwater Croquet - need I say more?
2. Hide and Go Seek Marathon - free to hide anywhere in the host city
3. Synchronized Bowling - judged on style and exact number of pins knocked down
4. Marco Water Polo - all players are blind folded
5. Rhythmic Tetherball - each player must hoola hoop while playing
6. Unicycle Pursuit - what a great Velodrome sport
7. Potato Peeling - this is just to help prepare lunch for everyone
8. Beach Golf - every shot is a sand trap!
9. 1000km Crawl - slower than the walk but more entertaining
10. Exhaustathon - each player must do every sport

Labels: Curtis Tucker, funny moment, Olympics

I LOVE the Olympics! If you missed the swimming 4 x 100m freestyle relay on Sunday night you may have missed one of the most spectacular races in history. The men's American relay team came up with a gold medal victory that had the United States of America jumping and screaming at their TV sets.

I sat quietly as the underdog USA team fell behind the French and was resolved that the Americans would pick up the silver medal. The French had been talking smack and bragged that they would "smash" the US team. For much of the race it looked as though that might have been the case. And then, with only 40 meters left, I noticed that Cullen Jones was drafting off of the trash talking Frenchman. He began to slowly move up and my right leg started to shake back and forth. As he got closer both legs started shaking back and forth as I was trying to add my energy to his miracle comeback.

With only 10 meters left my legs were pumping, my arms were pumping and I was beginning to believe. I gave all of the momentum that I could give from the other side of the world. And you know what... it worked!! I helped the US win the gold medal! I could hear my wife and daughters screaming from the other room. Even though I had just witnessed it, I couldn't believe we, America, had come back and won the race. The first thing out of my mouth was, "Take that French Fry!".

Thank you, thank you, thank you. If I never see another Olympic event again it won't matter. That was the coolest race I've ever seen and I can go to bed knowing the the United States of America just kicked the World's ass.

Labels: Curtis Tucker, Olympics