The "True Blue Oilers Fan!" Story

It was an ordinary day. My wife Carol was talking to our daughter Brynn while I was watching Pia sing on American Idol. Then she interrupts the song with a message from Brynn. "Tad is having the time of his life," Carol reports, via Brynn. We gave Tad and our son-in-law Dave, Brynn's husband, tickets to go to the Edmonton Oilers vs. Washington Capitals professional hockey game for Christmas this past year. Tad has been an Oilers fan all his life. Knows every player on the team, past and present, as well as most of the players in their farm system. A true and loyal fan! Well, tonight is the night of the game. Being played in Washington, DC, so Tad drove down to Brynn's house in Frederick, MD to head to the game with Dave. They took the Metro into DC to the Verizon Center which is located in the Chinatown neighborhood. After arriving they stopped at the Green Turtle for something to eat and drink before the game started. While Dave went to get a couple of beers, Tad saw a few fans in the restaurant with Oilers shirts on. He had to go and say Hi! to them, of course. The 3 were from Edmonton, Canada. They all got to talking and asked Tad where he was from. They couldn't believe someone from Lancaster County, PA would be an Oilers fan. Tad told them he had been to Philadelphia the night before with one of his best friends, Chad P., to see the Flyers play the Oilers. SO HAD THEY!! Now they knew he was a true fan. And then ....... he told them that he had a big tattoo on his chest of Grant Fuhr, his all time favorite player. Grant is a goaltender who played for the Oilers from 1981-91. He is in the NHL (National Hockey League) Hall of Fame and is called by Wayne Gretzky, "The greatest goaltender in NHL history." #31, the first true black superstar in the NHL, has played on 5 Stanley Cup winners with the Oilers. Well, the Edmonton fans had to see the tattoo! Couldn't believe it!! Had to take photos of it and told Tad that they were going to contact theEdmonton newspaper when they got back and show them what a true fan does for his favorite team. Tad gave him his email which starts out ... oilfanpw@...... so they could send him a copy of the paper if they wrote anything about him. Hey, game time! Seats were a few rows above the TV cameras so what you see on TV is what Tad and Dave saw. Right in the middle of Verizon Center. It was a Christmas gift, remember. Dave kept texting Brynn with info about what was happening. "Crapitols", as Tad calls them were ahead 2-0 when Dave texted Brynn that the team mascot was next to Tad and was going to choke him since he had an Oilers hat on his head and they had all of this on the big screen in the middle of the rink. Then Tad saw his new friends from Canada sitting on the opposite of the rink. They worked their way over to where Tad and Dave sat so they could show their other 3 traveling buddies Tad's tattoo. Game ended 5-0, but Tad had one of his most memorable nights of his life. Now he's waiting to see if his tattoo is in the newspaper in Edmonton. And maybe, just maybe, his new friends will invite him to Edmonton to see a game in their stadium. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - pixs from the top are: Verizon Center in Washington, DC, Logo of the Edmonton Oilers on a hockey puck that was autographed by #31 Grant Fuhr, Grant Fuhr as he appeared in goal for the Oilers in the 80s, Tad's tattoo which is an exact duplicate of the previous photo of Grant Fuhr in goal, seating in the center of the rink, and photo of Tad's Edmonton friends on the other side of the rink in their orange and blue jerseys waiting for their team to enter the ice.