After driving from Weddington or Marvin or wherever I am to Greensboro and back Wednesday and to Greensboro Thursday, I decided to stay Thursday night. If every driver had promised to leave the left lane on I-85 and I-485 open for faster traffic and use their turn signal, I might have driven back. But I couldn't get that committment.
I thought that finding a hotel might be rough. I was wrong. The first three I tried -- one downtown and two near the airport -- had vacancies. They all but said, bring friends. You want a room or a floor?
That's rare at an NCAA basketball tournament regional. With North Carolina and Duke here, along with big schools such as Texas, Louisiana State and Minnesota, hotel rooms in a mid-sized city such as Greensboro should have been claimed. But these are different times.
Or maybe not. After I left Greensboro Coliseum I found a restaurant near the hotel and ate at the bar. On televison was the Villanova game. I have Villanova going deep into the tournament, as did almost everybody who worked there. The employees pulled out their brackets. One, the chef, had attended Villanova, and said I had his school going too far, that it would gag. I said I had attended Minnesota but picked Texas. Brackets supersede loyalty for most of us but not the bartender, who went to Tennessee and had the Vols advancing to the Final Four.
We were all cheering for Villanova to escape it's first-round game upstart American which was trying to upset them.
Another customer couldn't stand it and finally said, "You're all UnAmerican."
It was funny the first few times.
This is an amazing piece of journalism. Thought provoking and stimulating. How can I nominate this for a Pulitzer?
Posted by: Barbara | March 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM