NHL Apparel

I’ve seen some random NHL apparel here. When I was shopping at the second hand market in Kavaje, I spotted one of those hideous RBK Islanders jerseys. I bought a Red Wings Stanley Cup champion t-shirt at one of those same markets. And the other day, a student walked into the office in a Wings shirt. I doubt seriously if anyone knows what these teams really are. Which only breaks my heart even more as the first of two lost seasons for me opens.

But the best display of NHL apparel was what I saw today. Now, it’s not a secret that there are a lot of traffic accidents here. Turn on the news and you can see the latest horrors. But for all the accidents, there are infinite amounts of near misses. Sitting in the furgon on my way to Durres I saw a bunch of stopped cars. Apparently the cause for the stoppage was a car that tried to make a spontaneous u-turn and timed it badly. Although there was no accident, it must have come very close to taking out a car traveling in the opposite direction. The driver of the car making the u-turn was out of his car, along with his wife, and screaming in the face of another driver.

The driver that made the u-turn? A 350 pound Italian wearing a red number 23. I know he was huge because I could see him, and I know he was Italian because I could hear him. Seeing the number and the color scheme, I thought to myself, “Oh God, I really, really hope…” And my wish was granted when we got closer: on the back of the mammoth Italian was a #23 Scott Gomez New Jersey Devils t-shirt. I guess I could make a joke about shouting, overweight Italians that are Devils fans, but that would almost be too obvious, wouldn’t it?