Childhood Euphoria

I accidentally first posted this in the debate/discussion...sorry

I don't know why I am making this thread, but wanted to share an awesome experience I had about 15 years ago.

I was in the 5th grade and it was right after the month of ramadan. After fasting for about 30 days there is a 3 day holiday called eid. The first day of eid, my family usually goes to a mass prayer (at George R. Brown Convention Center) and then takes the children out to eat followed by a fun activity. That year it was a weekday and my parents/uncles/aunts took my brother, sister, cousins, and myself to Exelerama at Memorial City Mall. I'm sure you guys remember this place. It had a huge yellow sign and it was located in the food court. I was walking in with my Mom so excited to play video games, laser tag and the 3-D arcade game where you wear the screen and physically turn to control you player. Then I see someone that I recognize, I did the double take with my mouth dropped. This guy then waived at me with an awkward smile on his face. It was Clyde Drexler, really Clyde the Glide Drexler!! I didn't know what to do. My hero was right there....waiving at me. At that moment, I could care less about the laser tag or the 3-D video game, I just wanted to meet CLYDE THE GLIDE DREXLER. So I reluctantly walk up to him and asked him what he was doing here. He very nicely told me that he liked to come here during the weekdays in order to have fun without all the attention (hint, hint). Ignoring his statement, I ran to my mom, asked her for money to go to the rockets store (next door) to by a hat for an autograph. So I get the hat and ask him to sign. At the time he was playing an arcade game, stopped mid game and signed the hat. I was thinking, well **** this opportunity is way to good to stop here. So I went to the front clerk and asked for a piece of paper and pen in order to get an autograph from CLYDE THE GLIDE DREXLER! She made a deal with me. "I will give you a paper and pen if you get an autograph for me as well." I happily agreed. So I go back to him and ask him for two more autographs. He gives me a friendly smirk and tells me I usually only give one autograph per person but I will do this for you. I'm just ballin at this point. I feel like I just won the lottery. I have Clyde Drexler all to my self. So I get the autographs and give one to the clerk. At this point my mom told me not to bother him anymore and for me to play video games, I reluctantly agreed. After a couple of hours, CLYDE THE GLIDE DREXLER approached me!!!! He said that he had a few game vouchers that he wasn't going to use and gave them to me. It was literally a stack of about 100 laser tag tickets!!! At the time the laser tag was about $2-$2.50 a pop. After that day I went back almost every weekend and had a time of my life playing laser tag and telling people my story. It has been many years now, but I will never forget the time when I met CLYDE The GLIDE DREXLER.

 

Thanks for reading