Writing Prompt #3

After years mostly dormant, I am attempting to work myself into being a writer again. To that end, I did a simple Google search for "writing prompts" and chose the first link listed, which included a total of 20 prompts. My goal is to write from a new prompt each day, giving myself 10 minutes before calling "hands up, utensils down" (so to speak), and then posting the unedited result in this blog. The post below is today's entry.

 

"Write about an item you have that isn’t expensive but means a lot to you."

 

My Memphis State sweatshirt has seen its share of sweat—more than 37 years’ worth. My mom bought it for me during a trip to the Tiger Bookstore on Walker, right near the campus, in late 1986, during the middle of the Memphis State Tigers’ basketball season. The team was banned from playing in the NCAA tournament that year, but that’s the only thing that kept them from playing in it, because they were really good. Dwight Boyd, Sylvester Gray, Marvin Alexander, Dewayne Bailey—we had some players.

 

I had multiple Tigers sweatshirts around that time, but this one was always my favorite—midnight blue, with nothing but the bold words MEMPHIS STATE in white with gray trim, across the front—simple, clean, classic, and free from the clutter that seems to mar much of the apparel sold to fans of the university’s teams. I wore it with pride to school, always affirming that my true loyalty lay with the Tigers over and above our high school. When I ultimately attended Memphis State, I took the sweatshirt with me, wearing it to football and basketball games and pretty much anywhere else.

 

The shirt now has a few holes and some yellow paint stains, but it still fits, and I still wear it to games. It’s older than most of my friendships, and it outlasted my career at my longtime place of employment. I hope to be buried in it, sanctifying it in an open coffin in the nave of my parish, exposed to incense, icons, and the prayers of the faithful.