Although I am admittedly not an athletic person, there are some sports that I do enjoy.... okay, they usually involve my husband and sons playing softball or basketball; but I'll never forget my introduction to the Olympics. It was the Munich Olympics in 1972, the summer that I turned fourteen. I loved watching the Olympics, my favorite was of course Mark Spitz (my gym teacher had a life-sized poster of him on her office door wearing nothing but a flag speedo and his seven Olympic gold medals around his neck). Although I enjoy watching the swimming and gymnastics, the winter Olympic games are my favorite and I particularly love figure skating.
I'll never forget being at the beach house the summer of 1995. We were all watching as the announcement was made that the winter Olympics in the year 2002 would be held in the city of Salt Lake City (that sounded so funny to me... the city of Salt Lake City). In 1995; 2002 seemed so far away, now it seems so long ago.
During the 2002 Olympics I took Caitlin out of school one day and we went with my Mother, my sister, and my nephews to downtown SLC for our own Olympic experience.
It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. They participated in Olympic events, won medals, and had pictures taken. We saw a display of "Olympic paraphernalia" through the years and so I decided to share some of my "Olympic paraphernalia". I purchased four "Kelly" dolls (Barbie's) at Target. I spent about $5 each on them. I've kept them in un-opened boxes for the past eight years and the other day I looked them up online. My figure skater Kelly is now worth $44.95 and my hockey player Tommy is worth $39.95. 
My other two dolls; a snowboarder and a skier are both in the $20 range. I think I'll hang on to them for a few more years. Do you think I should? I also have a "Roots" beret. Everyone wanted "Roots" berets and they stood in line for hours waiting for the opportunity to buy one. I was lucky; I was able to order one and never had to wait in line. But I've never worn it. I saw one on eBay the other day for $5. It doesn't sound like "Roots" berets are valuable paraphernalia.
My daughter-in-law Kristin was a volunteer during the Olympics, she worked at the opening/closing ceremonies and with stage/props. She loved it. Kristin came home from the closing ceremonies with a souvenir bag for us. It had cool stuff inside that Caitlin wanted to open but I said "no", I was still remembering all of the "Olympic paraphernalia" that I'd seen In SLC and I wanted to keep that bag in perfect form; after all, it could be worth some money someday. Do any of you have memories of the 2002 Olympics?
6 comments:
Hard to believe those Olympics were 8 years ago!! Luke was only 3 months old...time flies by. I would love Salt Lake to get the Olympics again sometime.
I remember the day we took the kids. That was a lot of fun and a memorable occasion. I remember driving around the city and seeing the lights and the "flame" up at the "U" I also remember Cory was out of town and flew into SLC after dark and commenting how the City looked from the sky. I had often heard that Visa was the only card accepted at the Olympics and wondered about that, but when we went shopping in the Olympic area downtown it was indeed the only credit card they would accept. I got a "Roots" headband.
What a fun post! I love your Olympic dolls,Les. Yes,you definitely need to hang on to them. We don't live in Utah so we were not in the middle of the big excitement of it all, but we were still excited because Utah is home so Olympics 2002 was a proud moment and we followed it with a lot of interest on TV and got updates on all the festivities from family especially from Mom and Dad. I also remember our family going to Old Sacramento to watch the Olympic torch runner on his way to SLC, and we cheered the Olympic flame on! There was a big Olymic concert after and we stayed to watch and cheer and we wore glow sticks around our heads and necks. It was fun! The kids enjoyed it! Even Alan didn't mind being in such a big crowd. Later Mom and Dad sent us a framed poster of SLC during the Olympics. I think somewhere we also have a collection of Olympic pins on a board map, with a pin from every city the flame went through on its way to SLC. Now after reading this post I got to find that for sure.
Lesley's computer is on the blink. Otherwise, she'd fix the typo saying it was 1985 because she meant 1995. Still, it seemed like a long way away before the Olympics would be here.
It was so much fun having the Olympics here. I love that we took the kids downtown to experience the excitement of it all. We were lucky enough to see one of the medal ceremonies (which later the gold medalist was stripped of his medal because of drugs).
I'd love it if the Olympics came back here.
Thanks for the "shout out" Leenz, I was finally able to fix the problem and I'm hoping that the computer problem is fixed as well.
I remember the 2002 Winter Olympics. It was on TV. I was in California. The Olympics came to my home state and I wasn't there.
:(
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