See The Man Smile

It's Plot and Duck's Anniversary today, but when Plot opened his eyes this morning what was on his mind was: "Hot dog! Basketball at Lick!"

It's true -- today was the reassembly of the Old Guys at James Lick Middle School, the b-ball game that Plot played in each week from the week he and Duck moved into Snowy Valley in 1993, until a few years ago when the game disbanded. Last Tuesday, when Plot rode the p-cycle down to Dr. Flossem's office, he stopped to see Laban out in front of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, and Laban said: "PLOTNIK! We're playing again! This Saturday at Lick!"

Sure enough, Plottie got down to Lick this morning by 8am and the cars were already lined up on the sidewalk, just like in the old days.



Sherlock was there.



Orlando was there.



So was Laban's cousin Max.



So were Rico, Ira and Bobby.



Skip brought his beautiful daughter. Ira's daughter came too. These kids were barely more than toddlers the last time Plotnik had seen them.





As far as the quality of the ball went, this game is a notch or two better than Plotnik's Sunday game, and a million times more fun. There were more trash talk and jokes tossed around in the first five minutes on Saturday than in three months of Sunday's game. It's not that the Sunday guys are bad guys, 'cuz they're not, it's just that Plot doesn't know them. He knows these guys and really likes them, and always has.

Like Chaiuka.



And Little Ron.



Also: they're a LOT bigger. Plot got tossed around like a ping pong ball out there and will be slinging the Advil all day, but he more than held his own. When he got open he got passed to. When he did something right somebody said "Way to go." When he screwed up, somebody said "Don't worry about it."



They say they're going to try to do this once a month -- Plotnik sure hopes so. It's good to play and it's even better to see the guys. Playing with his old buddies on Saturday makes Plot realize he needs a new Sunday game, but at his age it's not easy to break into a new game and have them take you seriously. It's not as if Plotnik can rise over the rim and say "I told you so."

When Plot told Maurice and Cadillac it was his anniversary and he hadn't remembered to say Happy Anniversary to Ducknik before he tore out of the house to get down to the court, Maurice shook his head.

"Uh, uh, uh. Better head for the jewelry store."

Cadillac said:

"And throw in three dozen donuts. For me."