AUGUST 7, MONDAY

CHARLOTTE PANTHERS SUMMER TRAINING CAMP

Yesterday I drove with my son Tom and two of his friends from Melrose Avenue to watch the practice sessions of the Charlotte Panther National Football League team in Spartanburg, about an hour and a half from Asheville.

We were going because Eku Leoto, who had lived all his life next door to my son Tom on Melrose Avenue, was an undrafted prospect playing for a place on the team. He played his college football at Auburn University and had a good career.

We arrived in Spartanburg at 10 a.m. with tickets to the practice and discovered that we were expected to sit on a grassy hill overlooking the practice field. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature was already in the high 80‘s on a humid day. There were a large number of people already in deck chairs with umbrellas to protect themselves against the sun. We hadn‘t known folding chair were allowed so we sat in the sun in the grass. But it turned out that except for a brief period almost all the practice session was not held on the field in front of us, but the next field over behind a number of tents. So we could see there was some activity in the distance but couldn‘t see a thing and certainly couldn‘t see Eku.

Only after more than two hours of sitting in the scorching sun did we realize why the rest of the audience, who also couldn‘t see a thing, were waiting so patiently. After the practice Eku came over to where we were and signed footballs, t-shirts, hats, photographs for the children in the crowd who were honored to be in the presence of a professional football player. Eku was friendly and we got some photographs with him and then, still dazed by the heat, went out to eat in an airconditioned restaurant and drove home.