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They've Waited A Long, Long Time For This: Veteran Cubs Fans Rejoice

NPR | By Camila Domonoske
Published November 3, 2016 at 11:48 AM EDT
An unnamed Chicago Cubs fan catches raindrops in his mouth after the Cubs finally won the World Series on Wednesday. His shirt says, "Just one before I die."
Charlie Riedel
/
AP
An unnamed Chicago Cubs fan catches raindrops in his mouth after the Cubs finally won the World Series on Wednesday. His shirt says, "Just one before I die."

The streets of Chicago erupted in cheers last night. Shouts of jubilation were raised in sports bars across the country.

And in comfy chairs in living rooms across America, the grandmas and grandpas and great-grandparents of Cubs Nation took to their feet, held their faces in shock, grabbed their telephones, collapsed into gleeful laughter and chugged champagne straight from the bottle.

All the Cubs fans on Earth have been waiting their whole lives for this. (Even those few fans who were alive for the last World Series win were too young to possibly remember it.)

But the oldest fans have, of course, been waiting the longest — and on Wednesday night, as their patience was rewarded, their glee was shared with the world through the magic of social media.

Like these grandmothers, who just didn't think the Cubs could do it.

Or this great-grandma, who was all laughter and applause, as her landline starts ringing off the hook.

Or this gentleman, whose glee — 81 years in the making — has gone viral.

One grandpa had been saving a special beer (long since gone funky) for the occasion.

"Grandpa was 14 the last time the cubs were in the world series," one tweet read.

(NPR has not independently confirmed the ages or team loyalties of any of the people pictured. But we think the joy speaks for itself.)

Many senior Cubs fans went straight for the telephone to share the moment.

Others shared the victory with loved ones who were gone. (On a similar note, many Cubs fans were chalking the names of those who didn't live to see this day onto the walls of Wrigley Field, so they could share in the moment. And at least one fan listened to the game in a cemetery, to share the moment with his father.)

There were matching shirts and smiles.

There were Cubs hats galore.

There was celebratory drinking.

And mostly, there was glee — decades and decades in the making.

Twitter user @harleelwt shared two videos of his grandpa — before and after victory.

At the top of the 10th, he has his hands over his eyes, asking, "Are the bases loaded?" When told they are, he says, "Holy cow."

But after the win was in, he was cool as a cucumber — on the telephone, of course.

"Piece of cake, wasn't it?" he said.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Camila Domonoske
Camila Flamiano Domonoske covers cars, energy and the future of mobility for NPR's Business Desk. She can be reached via encrypted message at camiladomonoske.42 on Signal.
See stories by Camila Domonoske
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