Purple Passion With Purple Pride

I am a hometown gal, a seventy-nine year old senior citizen. I love the Ravens. I have always loved the color purple. I even had a purple and lavender kitchen in 1964 when we bought our first and only home. It was very hard to find purple accents then and so I had to have white draperies made for the windows with little purple balls hanging at the creases. I had two white chairs and two purple chairs and the floor was a white and purple fleck. After about ten years of not being able to add purple/lavender to the décor, I changed the kitchen colors to blue. Finally, right after that, purple became a popular accent for kitchens. I even had a neighbor at that time design her kitchen with purple and red which was quite unusual.

My husband in 1958, a year after we were going together or as they said in those days of 1950’s, courting, attended the 1958 game now called Super Bowl in New York of the Baltimore Colts versus the New York Giants and it was lovingly known then and now as the Sudden Death game or the most wonderful game ever played. At that time, I could not understand how he chose going to that game over seeing me, his girlfriend the whole weekend. He has never stopped talking about it and our oldest grandson told all his friends in high school that his grandfather had been at that game. What an experience to recount and to have been involved in.

Suddenly, this year, I became enthralled with the Ravens, our purple team. I, a college graduate, a ballroom dancer who writes columns on ballroom dance and life, a mother, wife, Grammie, and an intelligent and smart senior tried to learn all the intricacies of football. At first, I could not tell who was running where or why; was that a good move, was that OK, I would ask my mentor, my husband Jerry of  fifty-three years. Elita who was smart enough and agile enough to dance in many dance competitions with my dance coaches through the years and to win fifty-eight trophies and medals in dance, wasn’t

able to understand that game. I stayed home on football Sundays to watch my beloved team perform and still after many games continued to watch and not go out for dinner or anywhere else because I must watch the purple Ravens. One weekday morning, many months ago, my husband and his brother-in-law were eating breakfast in a Pikesville restaurant and the waitress told them that Joe Flacco was there. Joe walked out and shook everyone’s hand. When I heard this, I was sorry I had not been eating there with him. When I bought two new office chairs for our home office here, the manager at Staples in Owings Mills showed us a picture of himself with Joe, when Joe visited the store at that time. I found that exciting too.

We are lucky to have the Ravens and we should show our esteem to the late Art Modell for giving us the team, for the happiness we have had for these 18 years of his bringing all of our Baltimoreans from all areas of the city and county together in our mutual love for the Ravens and the season they had this past year. We are grateful to the two Rays, Rice and Lewis and to Terrell Suggs, Joe and everyone on the team. We are known all over the country and winning the Super Bowl sure was exciting.

I even bought myself a beautiful Ravens ladies’ jacket to wear all winter inside over a blouse for when we go to a cool restaurant or anyplace I need a light jacket. It is black and trimmed in faux leather and has the Ravens’ emblem on the top right and proudly on the back says Baltimore. I can now wear it with great pride. I bought myself a sterling silver necklace charm to wear on purple Fridays when everyone who loves football is attired in the color purple or lavender. Babies are dressed in purple pants, dresses and shirts. When they won the Super Bowl, I bought a plaque with headlines of the day and Joe’s photo with a football.

Women and young ladies are polishing their finger nails with purple nail polish. Lavender and purple eye shadow is hard to find because it is so popular. This city and state has embraced our purple passion and this is the passion we lost when our Colts were taken from us.

If I could walk well, I might even try to go to a game here at home. A friend of mine sold an engagement ring at the jewelry store where she worked last year to a Raven. He told her that he would come back in December and if they were doing well, he would buy an additional one for his fiancée. I just missed seeing him because we left to beat the beltway traffic in the afternoon.

 I still have my purple, lavender and green bedroom décor. That stayed with me and us and even that is a tribute to the regal purple of the Ravens. Edgar Allan Poe would be proud to know our team was named after his poem.

I am proud as an aging senior to finally understand (almost all the rules and shortcomings) of the game and most of all, I am proud of OUR PURPLE TEAM. They always said the color purple meant royal. We sure felt quite majestic when we won the Super Bowl.

Our Ravens are certainly in all of our fans ‘eyes, the epitome of royal and they have brought to us in winning and a few losing’s, the feeling of being in a domain of happiness and fun. People on the streets or in stores, doctor offices and just anywhere, felt a companionship because of our Ravens.

Shakespeare said in one of his sonnets “what mighty power you have.” We as Ravens fans, even fans like me who still do not truly comprehend all about football; have a common love and adoration for this team and that in itself makes us a group of connected folks who love this one thing in its totality. We have gained good power and we are mightier for it.