Go Packers!

It was during the Lombardi era.  One Sunday I was watching a Packer game with one of my sisters.  Mom was there too, but she wasn’t interested in football.  She was knitting.  During a lull in the action, a commentator asked one of the Packer coaches how he thought the game was going.  The coach was Ray Witecka (I’m not sure of the spelling).

The mention of that name got Mom’s attention.  She paused in her knitting, looked up, and said, “He’s my cousin.”  Then she went back to her knitting.  And I went back to the game.  My sister, however, could not get over the fact that our family was connected to someone as famous as one of the assistant coaches of the Green Bay Packers!  Not only that, he was on TV!  Never mind that  he and Mom hadn’t seen each other since they were children.

Maybe my sister wanted to reunite these branches of our family.  I don’t know, but she wrote Mr. Witecka a letter.  She said she was a Packer fan.  And one time she was watching a game, and his name was mentioned, and her mom said he was her cousin, and did he remember Irene.  Now, of course, I have no idea what she said in her letter, but what I wrote is probably sort of the general idea.  Anyway.

My sister got a response in the form of a football sized package.  In fact, was a football, and it was autographed by all the players on the team that year.

Now I have just one question . . .  Patti, where’s that football?