My Husband's Legs

When we were going together at the University of Illinois, I would sometimes have a chance to watch my future husband, John, practice for the U of I intramural basketball team.

He loved the sport and played really well, but at that time what I found most amazing were my husband’s legs! Back then, in the 1950′s, basketball uniforms included very short shorts, and I had a chance to study my boyfriend’s hairy, muscular, and very attractive, manly legs.

The practice gym was located near the chemistry labs and I can still remember the sulphur like smell that permeated the narrow passageway leading up to the gym door. John was a chemistry major, and would eventually work in the labs of Universal Oil Products in Palatine, Ill., where he would be credited with numerous patents before he became an executive in the field; and when we were first married, many times he would plop down on the sofa after
a long day at work, his uniform emitting that same sulphury smell that spelled lab.

So the memory of the chemical odor and the sexy image of my future husband in his short, short basketball shorts carries me back over time. There we are walking along the pavement in Champaign-Urbana, whipped by the blustery and bitter prarie winds, two young people in the throes of romantic love and blissfully happy in our togetherness.

John has taught me a lot about basketball, and we’ve watched many a Chicago Bull’s game. The players pop up in person here and there on the North Shore. As a matter of fact, I almost backed into Omer Asik just yesterday at Whole Foods in Deerfield. (He was so tall that I had to crane my neck to see his young and sincere face.

And, of course, I was too stunned to ask for an autograph!) I am a rabid Chicago Bulls fan in every respect. Love those Bulls! Have to wonder about something though. If push came to shove, could the Bulls' legs match up in looks with my husband’s legs?

With these long basketball shorts of today, we’ll never know for sure. But if a leg contest were possible and I could go back in time and enter that intramural basketball player that
I married, I more than suspect my husband would win out.

Yessiree.