The Olympics Were Only A Dream

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Trip Start Feb 14, 2010 Trip End Feb 19, 2010 Next
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  Barre, Vermont
Friday, February 1, 1980

It all began for me during the winter of 1980. I was 10-years old, and spent two weeks in February sitting in front of the wood stove (a lot of the time with my dad) watching the Lake Placid Winter Games on our family's black-and-white TV set.  My dad and I would sit there and watch Robin Cousins skate, Ingemar Stenmark ski, Eric Heiden fly, and - of course - the US hockey team win.

I was growing up in Barre, VT and was used to the idea of getting buried in 6-10' of snow every year and being forgotten by the rest of the world until September - when the tourists would come from the big cities for a couple of weeks to look at our trees.

Lake Placid was close to us though - very close - only about three and a half hours away!  And the whole world was looking at Lake Placid - my little corner of the world.  I knew this was the case because Jim McKay and the folks with ABC's "Wide World of Sports" told me so every day and night.

I asked my dad (over waffles with maple syrup) to take me over to the Games - knowing that there was no way he'd go for it.  "Too far."  "Too expensive."  "Not enough time."  Those were the answers I got all to all of my pleading.

Still, he loved watching the Games too.  And my mom even got caught up in Olympic fever herself.

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