During the summer of 1994 I attended Space Camp in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I had worked many long hours as a 12 year-old cutting grass to come up with half the money needed to attend and my parents would pay the rest. 1994 was a transition year for me. I would be leaving the friendly confines of elementary school (K-5) and starting middle school (6-8) in mid-August. Middle school as I thought to myself at the time was the beginning of the end of my youth. The idea about attending Space Camp was to do something that most kids my age would never get to do. Space Camp was just one stop on our family vacation that summer. My parents and younger sister and brother spent time at Coco Beach for a week soaking up the sun and enjoying the surf, while I was enjoying my time at Space Camp. I would rejoin my family a week later and we would work our way down the Florida Coast to West Palm Beach, where my dad and I would make our first scuba diving trip together with a couple of enjoyable drift dives.
As I attended Space Camp in mid July, World Cup 1994 was in full swing around the USA. I cannot recall when I found out that the United States would be hosting the World Cup. I can remember buying a World Cup Germany T-shirt and wearing it during 5th grade activity day towards the end of the school year. I do not think that I was a big Germany fan, but probably wanted a shirt with the World Cup 1994 logo on it. My fellow classmates asked me why I had on a German shirt and they wanted to know more about the World Cup. I did not have access to a TV while I was attending space camp and daily updates would be in the morning when I purchased a USA Today on my way to breakfast. I followed the action very closely. It would be on Monday, July 18th, 1994 that I picked up the paper to see that Roberto Baggio of Italy kicked the ball over the ball over the crossbar to give Brazil their 4th World Cup Title.
There would be some big name players on that 1994 Brazil team that would return to their team in France 1998. The one Brazilian player that sticks out in my mind the most is Dunga, captain of the team and an amazing defending. He now coaches the Brazilian national team and will doubt lead the team during World Cup 2010.
As I prepared this blog posted, I pulled out some of my 1994 trading cards and also located a few of those USA Today’s that I read while I was attending Space Camp.
