It was sort of a Super Bowl miracle. Not because the Chiefs won. They deserved it, given the Eagles’ defense in the second half.
But because only one middle finger was extended during a five-hour Super Bowl party on Truman Avenue. Because four people, friends for 43 years, two Chiefs fans and two Eagles fans, watched the game together in the home they’re all sharing for two weeks in Key West.
I assume it goes without saying the middle finger belonged to an Eagles fan (in this case, my father), who raised it while handing over a five-dollar bill to settle the high-stakes bet the two couples typically make whenever Kansas City plays Philadelphia in any sport — and whenever the KU Jayhawks play the Villanova Wildcats in college basketball.
These bets and this rivalry, like the two couples’ friendship, goes back more than 40 years, to when I was 3 years old and my family moved to Overland Park, Kansas, just outside KC.
My dad had seen our potential new house first, visiting a few options with a real estate agent before bringing my mom, brother and me to look at the ones on the shortlist.
On dad’s first visit to the house at 10400 Earnshaw, a neighbor from down the street happened by, and asked whether my dad and his wife, both about 31 at the time, had any children.
My dad said he had a 6-year-old son, Kevin, and a 3-year-old daughter, Mandy.
The woman’s eyes lit up, as she and her husband had a 6-year-old son, Brian, and a 3-year-old daughter, Mindy.
The short interaction between a potential homebuyer and a potential neighbor grew into a lifelong friendship between two families — the Bolens and the Sandefurs.
My parents bought the house on Earnshaw, where we lived across the street and three houses down from the Sandefurs.
My mom and Andi became and remain the closest friends I’ve ever witnessed, through time, distance, kids, grandkids, family dramas and health scares.
Even after my family moved tearfully away from Kansas City five years later, we still saw the Sandefurs once a year. Mindy’s first view of the Atlantic Ocean was from the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey, when the Sandefurs first visited us “down the Shore,” having driven all the way from Kansas City.
My first-ever ski trip occurred with the Sandefurs, who took me with them to Keystone Ski Resort in Colorado, where I conquered my very first (albeit green) slope. I still remember, the beginner’s trail was called “Schoolmarm.”
As the two couples — Mary Ann and Bob Bolen, Andi and John Sandefur — descended together on Key West for two weeks this month, the friendship is as strong as ever.
And as for that one Super Bowl middle finger, eh, what else would you expect from an Eagles fan?
