Posts Tagged ‘nanny’

Margaret & Riggo

I’ve been a Redskins fan my whole life but the truth of the matter is I had no choice, I was born and raised to be this way. Most of it comes from my grandmother, the great Margaret Pearson or Nanny as I affectionately called her. Nanny had a bar in Herndon back in the day and lots of former Redskins utilized Margaret’s Inn as their watering hole. One of the players that frequented Margaret’s Inn was John Riggins. Riggo is/was my favorite player of all-time and I always enjoyed listening to Nanny tell Riggo stories. Riggo actually came to visit my grandmother in the last few days before she retired…and in classic Riggo fashion asked for a 6-pack to go.

It was sometime in the later years of my Nanny’s life that I was sitting with her playing cards and we were drinking beers…yep that’s the way we rolled. Nanny looked over at the telephone hanging on the wall and said “I bet you one G-damn thing, if I had John Riggins number he’d meet us out for a night on the town any old time.” Despite everything I’d known about my grandmother’s relationship with Riggo, I kind of blew that off. However, I’m pretty certain now that she was right. You see, there was no Twitter or facebook back in those days…hell, cellphones weren’t even common. So, it came as a suprise to me that nearly 30 years later, Riggo sent me this tweet (this is from Aug of 2009):

That’s exactly right, if you’ve ever set foot in the Ice House in Herndon, VA…then you’ve been to Margaret’s Inn. A place where Hall of Famers like Charley Taylor and John Riggins would drink beers and shoot the shit. I was much to young to have remembered her place, let alone have a beer there. On the day of Nanny’s funeral my wife and I snuck down to the Ice House (which was just a block away from the funeral home) to grab a beer. Unfortunately, it was closed…I still have yet to tilt one back in Nanny’s old establishment, it’s on my bucket list. Maybe Riggo will meet me there because the more things change, the more they stay the same. On the very night Riggo sent me the above tweet I asked him what he was drinking, his response below:

Cheers and Hail

Favorite All-Time NFL Player: John Riggins

This is one in a series of posts that I am writing about my favorite things. What’s your favorite things? Tell me in the comments section or email me from the main page of the site.

My favorite football player of all-time is John Riggins. Despite the fact that he has been retired for nearly 25 years, no other player has been able to unseat Riggo from this title. Of course, there’s never been another player that was quite like Riggo. Standing 6’2” and weighing 230lbs, he was a huge running back, but he had a personality even larger.

What a lot of people don’t know about John Riggins… he was FAST. People saw the big body, the “3 yards and a cloud of dust,” and thought he was slow. NOT! He was twice the 100 yd dash state title holder in high school. He also broke the state record, until then held by a guy by the name of Gale Sayers.

Everyone remembers and sees the highlight of Riggo’s 43yd TD, probably the single biggest play in Redskins history. What I remember is that play capping off the single best performance by any athlete, in any sport, in playoffs history. I defy anyone to tell me a better performance than Riggins in the 82 playoffs. He carried that team on his back. Here’s a quick look at his stats from those playoffs.
OPP ATT YDS TD
DET 25 119 0
MIN 37 185 1
DAL 36 140 2
MIA 38 166 1
For the those of you without a calculator, that’s 136 carries for 610 yards and 4 TD’s in 4 games. WOW!

As far as Riggo’s personality, great quotes, and funny stories, I highly recommend a google search.
Apologies to Art Monk, Darrell Green, Dexter Manley, and Gary Clark.

TRIVIA – On the day my grandmother retired from bartending John Riggins stopped by to give her his congrats. He also asked for a 6 pack to go

Cheers and Hail

Breast Cancer Awareness

I wrote this for The Cooley Zone back in April but never posted here at Fatpickled. Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, I felt like it would be a good time to re-post it.

I just purchased 2 tickets for the Cooley’s Rally for the Cure. Unfortunately, my wife and I will not be able to attend. Truth be told, we never had any intentions of attending and I really don’t have the extra $100 to spend right now. But the tickets were never intended for us…I bought the tickets for 2 other special people who also will not be able to attend, my grandmothers.

My father’s mom Louise died of breast cancer at the age of 32. My father was only 10 years old. Obviously, I never had a chance to meet Louise. This much I do know, she was a beautiful woman who produced my hero, my father. If you live in a great big house in Chantilly, you may even live on Louise avenue. This street is named after my grandmother. I wish I would have gotten the chance to know her.

My mom’s mom Margaret (Maggy to friends, Nanny to me) died of kidney cancer at the age of 73. She was awesome, I miss her every day. Although she lived a long and full life of fun and laughter, she left us within days of her diagnosis. Much too quick. One of my Nanny’s favorite sayings was “do me this favor and I’ll dance at your wedding.” She did dance at my wedding, but it was only with me and no one saw it. She was a huge Redskins fan, friends with John Riggins, and once owned a bar in Herndon that the Redskins frequented. She also cut the most glorious fart I have ever heard in my life (this post can’t be all sappy with no humor.) I’m not kidding, Yoder couldn’t hold a candle to this fart (and if he did, it would have blown him to Arlington.) 2 bucks Nanny, 2 bucks.

My wife recently lost her grandmother Rita after a long battle with lung cancer. My father recently had skin cancer. It doesn’t stop there, and my family is no different than yours. We’ve all been affected by this horrible disease. I’m sure each one of you reading this has a story to tell, maybe even more tragic. Cancer has no prejudices, it attacks the young and old, the rich and poor, the black and the white. This is why we all need to do something about it. I know we will find a cure for this disease in my lifetime, I know it. In the meantime, thousands of folks like Nancy Cooley are busy kicking cancer’s ASS!!!

The economy sucks…you don’t have to remind me, I’m in the auto business! But, maybe you can find a way to buy a ticket (either for yourself or in spirit) and hang out with the Cooleys to celebrate, remember, and fight back.

And if you attend the rally do me a favor, raise a glass to Louise and Maggy…if you do I’ll dance at your wedding.

Cheers and Hail

Fatpickle: I Heart The Redskins

I am 34 years old and I have spent all my life building a relationship with the Redskins. To say we have had our ups and downs would be an understatement. But in the end, they are my oldest and dearest friend. Here is a little history of our relationship.

I also got to do cool things like toss the Football with Mark Rypein, Ricky Sanders, and Gary Clark. I can still remember like it was yesterday hitting Ricky on a post pattern. Many of the players were awesome, I do remember some that were not. It’s amazing that I spent many days at Redskins Park, but I never saw Joe Gibbs. I guess he was always hard at work. My favorite memory by far was the day that I snuck onto the field and filmed practice. It was Super Bowl week before the Denver game in 87. Gibbs was always worried about spies, so I’m unsure how I was able to film 10 minutes of practice before getting kicked out. I later got the chance to ask Dexter Manley what he was going to do to John Elway in the Super Bowl. “I’m gonna kill him” Dexter replied. Sorry Cooley Bros.

I am lucky enough to be married to the greatest Wife and Mom in the world. Rebecca and I were high school sweethearts and we have been together for the better part of 18 years. We have a 4 year old son, 3 cats, and we lead the perfect life. All except for one thing, Rebecca is a Cowboy fan. So for a couple times each year things can get pretty tense. I’m happy that the Redskins have gotten the better part of the Cowboys the past couple years. My wife and son have taught me a few things. I don’t need to yell and scream obscenities while watching the game. The silent tirade I have in my head works just fine. Betting on the Skins and an over is probably not a good idea, the little man needs new shoes and to eat. A 24 hour period to be in a bad mood and get over a loss is enough, no need to be angry the whole week.