thedailytimes
I grew up in the 70s when soccer wasnt yet played on elementary and high school fields.
Probably not college either.
Our choices for sports in those days were basketball and track if you are female and the addition of football for the guys.
My high school did have a swim team.
When I heard the World Cup was coming to the United States, I didnt give it much thought.
I figured I might watch a few matches, especially ones with our nations team battling it out, but thats about as much thought as I gave it.
Then I found myself watching teams like England, Sweden, Ivory Coast, Scotland, South Korea, Brazil and Haiti.
I didnt know who was favored to win or how the system of points worked.
It has just been fun to see the international sport land here.
The fans in the stands are sometimes rabid as they wave their homeland flags.
The excitement is palpable.
People paint their faces and their bellies, yell until they are hoarse and party into the night after a victory.
Then there are the players and fans from all over who post videos of their first glances at the U.S.
World Cup cities include Seattle, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta and Miami.
Great places to visit no matter where youve come from.
But many of the visitors to our country are stopping or staying in much smaller towns.
My daughter was at a teacher conference in Chattanooga last week.
Spains soccer team was staying there.
The hotel had put out huge welcome signs and photos of the players.
Being such a long ways from home, Im sure they appreciated our hospitality.
Ive seen videos of people eating at their first Taco Bell, Texas Roadhouse and various burger joints.
You can tell they are having an absolute blast in places they have never been.
Of course they discovered Buck-ees too, just like all of us since it has built several along our interstates.
One person from the UK posted about his stay in Charleston, South Carolina and just how beautiful the homes and shoreline are, as he panned his camera to capture it.
Theres the story of fans from Scotland arriving in Boston to drink the bars dry.
Or the guys in kilts spotted in Times Square.
Theres a fan named Freddy from Germany who is documenting his adventures and its so fun to see his reaction to things we pass by without so much as an afterthought.
This whole World Cup experience for me has now become a way to view my country through their eyes.
I know, Taco Bell and Jersey Mikes are not our most notable accomplishments, but its refreshing to see the grand USA broken down to its smaller parts.
Our visitors are getting giddy over things and experiences we sometimes take for granted.
They love our American restaurants, our parks, beaches, ordinary people on the street.
I watched as one visitor described us as being skilled, intelligent, friendly and fun.
He even admitted he was prepared to meet some rudeness but found the exact opposite.
It makes me feel good that foreign visitors to our country are having a wonderful experience, bonding with their host towns and maybe planning to come back.
Its the 250th birthday of our nation.
I was alive in 1976 for the 200th.
My family was living in Memphis at the time and I remember going to see the Freedom Train.
It was full of historical artifacts.
The train started on the West Coast and made a months-long trip across the countryside, stopping in towns all along the way, ending in Florida.
I heard there was talk of doing that for this 250th celebration, but conflicts with railways and lack of sponsorship doomed any plans.
There will be fireworks and concerts and different ways we will show love for country.
But I will also remember this significant birthday as the one when I got to see the joy of being here from first-time visitors.
How grateful and excited they were to come here.
And it will remind me of how grateful I should also be, to call America my home.
Not to say we dont have lots of issues and problems to solve.
But hope and persistence are two things we have always had in large quantities.
On this 250th birthday of our nation, I choose to have both..