Johanna KalbTaking a moment to measure my adult life in World Cups. My first intro was when I was working a college summer in Leipzig. France was hosting, so no one did anything except watch. The next time I was in a village in coastal Ghana. We watched on a black and white screen with bunny ears and couldn’t see anything. In ‘06, I desperately wanted to be in Germany, but I was studying for the bar. In ‘10, I wanted to be in SA, but I had a newborn who didn’t sleep, so we too turns watching all night.
In ‘14, I had two little kids. We watched in Jersey City, which lit up with partisans cheering their countries of origin or ancestry. In ‘18, we were in NOLA and I was mid-treatment for breast cancer. My kids were old enough to join a “draft” - I don’t remember who won, but they sure they do. And now in ‘22, I am in Idaho and about to head into the wilderness. Grateful for my health and family. Wrenched by the reporting of continuing abuses of this year’s host. Inspired by the beautiful game.
Grey Wolf@professorkalb The first I remember was when Argentina won, but I was not really paying attention, it was just a lot of playground banter and some unfortunates bought Argentina tops and then the Falklands came along and they still had them. 1982 in Spain is the first world cup I really remember, Keegan and Mariner etc. 1986 was MY World Cup, all my heroes, Mexico, Sanchez, the Hand of God, Lineker, Bobby Robson. 1990 was also gold