On the Road in the SEC:
I know it’s been awhile since I last posted a blog but being retired brings its own risks and rewards and work (even part time) is not what it’s made out to be! On our road trip the first week of September, that culminated in being in Columbia (the current residence of the “old ball coach”) for South Carolina’s home opener and the debut of running back Marcus Latimore, we had a serendipitous encounter with an Auburn fan in the hinterlands of South Carolina.
My UGA son and I were driving to Washington, D.C. (by way of Delaware, an explanation forthcoming) and I was tired of driving on I-85 and saw a sign to the “Cowpens National Battlefield” maintained by the National Park Service. As a child from a middle class family who loved to travel but could only afford to camp along the way, we planned vacations around National Parks and National Forests as a means to visit and see faraway places and in doing so I learned to love our nation’s history and geography. The Battle of Cowpens was a turning point for the young Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. On a sleepy Monday afternoon (Aug. 30) I turned off the highway, followed the signs to Cowpens National Battlefield and found a pristine National Park and very well-informed park attendants to give an enthusiastic tour to break the monotony of a hot, sultry South Carolina afternoon.
We had no more entered the visitor center (dressed rather conspicuously in UGA attire) when the first words out of the mouth of the person at the Visitors’ desk was not “welcome to Cowpens” but “You must be lost. What are 2 Dawg fans doing in the middle of South Carolina?”. John Robertson, a retired textile engineer from Auburn who had spent the majority of his career in the Carolina Textile industry, is now an employee at Cowpens NB. After razzing us (albeit good-naturedly) for being UGA fans he quickly turned his conversation to a date in Dec. 1972 and I immediately (and correctly) identified it as the tremendous upset of Shug Jordan’s Auburn Tigers over Bear Bryant’s dominant Crimson Tide, 17-16. He was amazed that a Dawg fan would know that but I did grow in Bowdon, Ga., 3 miles from the Alabama state line. It would have been almost impossible to not know that date.
John Robertson typifies the SEC fan, he is rabidly and fiercely loyal to his alma mater but when it comes to the brotherhood of the SEC (Yankee John Kincaid notwithstanding); understanding and accepting the camaderie of SEC fans everywhere is what it’s all about!
HarrydDawg!
PS – John Robertson did give us a wonderfully energetic and informative tour!