”Not as man sees does God see because he sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” Book of Samuel
It was a really fun day as I completed another 17 mile walk — the first five of which were my last steps in Portugal — and then a magical boat ride across the Minho River to Garda, Spain to continue the journey to Santiago de Compostela. Once again, the weather was beautiful with lots of sunshine in the high 60s with some modest headwinds.
So many great memories of Mom and Dad are surfacing during this pilgrimage but the one today that dominated my thoughts was that special day in early June of 1968 where Mom christened our brand new backyard basketball court with a perfect shot. Dennis, Matty and I had been lobbying Mom and Dad for several years about having a basketball court installed on the left side of our garage. We were relentless in our pursuit for a court as for years we would play on Gary Franks court on Beverly Road. What’s amazing is we would go play there at all hours of the day without asking Mr. or Mrs. Frank permission to play. Dennis knew Gary pretty well and even when it snowed outside we would go over to shovel the court so we could play. Truth be told, we shoveled Garys court before we even shoveled our own driveway or walkway, a pattern that continued once we finally got our own court.
To this day, I am not sure what finally convinced Mom and Dad to agree to having a court in our backyard but boy we were thrilled when they told us. The school year was ending and I was finishing 7th grade having been the star guard for Mount Carmels CYO Varsity team that had a great tradition for basketball and I was excited about having my friends come over for games of 2 on 2 or even 3 on 3. My recollection is that the guy Mom and Dad hired to build the court was paid $200, which was a lot of money back then, especially for a family of seven as we had always struggled to make ends meet. But somehow, Mom and Dad found a way to do this for us.
The buildup to our grand opening was palpable and we all agreed that Mom would take the first shot. I don’t think Mom ever had touched a basketball since her days attending St. Brendan in Brooklyn but she was super confident. We kept telling her “Mom, you have to make the first shot, it’ll be bad luck if you miss.” Well the moment had finally come. I believe it was on a Thursday evening around 7pm just before dark. All seven Kirnan’s were out on the court as Mom walked to the court. She bounced the ball a couple of times like an All Pro and then looked up at the rim, took aim, and launched a perfect bank shot that nestled easily through the net. We went crazy with excitement jumping up and down as if Mom had just won an NBA title. Whenever Matty and I talk about this special moment, we always remember us mimicking the sound of the crowd, something we always did on that magical court. We would imitate all the great players — Bill Bradley — my all-time favorite, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Willis Reed and Walt Frazier. Oh it was a long list and then we would pretend we were the star player for our team and imitate taking that last shot with only seconds left in the game and when we scored we always had to add in the sound of the crowd. I think every kid who loves sports probably has done that before but we did that simulated crowd noise for every sport like all those whiffle ball games in the backyard pretending we were the Mets or the Cardinals or in football Matty and I would make believe we were star players for the Buffalo Bills — I was quarterback Jack Flaherty and Matty the Split End was Matt Flaherty.
I wish we had a picture of the court when it was new but we have so many cherished memories of playing on that court. Dad even installed a spotlight for us so we could play at night and I think Dad had more fun just watching his kids play from the perch of that green lawn chair he liked so much. And in the summer of 1971 before Dennis passed away, my friend Jimmy Van Yperen and I painted the court with the official lines showing the three second zone and the foul line. We received lots of complements for that probably because Jimmy?s dad owned a very popular painting company in town and he trained his three sons — Jimmy, Jack, and Dick — really well.
So much of my youth was spent on that court and it was all made possible by Mom and Dad. What a set of memories, what a great Mom and Dad we had. Love you and miss you Mom and Dad.
