Requiem for THE Heavyweights!

So it's Halloween 2011, I missed an anniversary, I miss my wife and grandkids while visiting my parents (which I don't regret but that's an entirely different article!) and the BIG game in the SEC is this weekend in Tuscaloosa; #1 LSU vs. #2 Alabama!

The euphoria has passed from the victory over Florida and although the radio talk shows in Atlanta were reveling in both the UGA and Ga. Tech wins this past Saturday no one can restrain themselves from talking about the game in Tuscaloosa over 5 days away. I don't think I know anyone at LSU but I send shout-outs to former Sequoyah Band members Lee H. and Sofie S. in the Million Dollar Band and to Jason F. (also a Sequoyah Band alumni) who attends UA. I mentioned Lee in my last post as I visited the Crimson Tide pep band in Oxford on Oct. 15. Although I'm not attending 'THE Game" this week (that is an EXPENSIVE ticket) I will watch in anticipation as the entire country debates whether or not 2 teams from the same conference should play in the BCS Championship game but it is still a bit premature; there is the remainder of the season and a 'few' other teams to consider, namely Oklahoma St. and Oklahoma.

The Captain and I will be traveling to LSU on Nov. 12 to visit Baton Rouge in what well might be their only night game this year; I just hope the hangover feeling (win or lose on Nov. 5) doesn't persist too long so we can sample the experience of a true Baton Rouge home game.

While doing background research for the Ole Miss game, I came across several comments referring to the unbridled behavior and reckless abandon of the typical LSU fan versus the refined, elegant demeanor of the Ole Miss elite. It should be interesting to compare the 2 SEC West schools and their diverse traditions at home. Anything in Louisiana is going to be different and I'm excited to see the "other side!"

Headed to the Legendary Grove @ Ole Miss!

Sorry folks for being so long away, circumstances have dictated that I spend more time at Kennestone H. and less time traveling to SEC stadiums BUT I have not stopped dreaming about getting on the road again and The Captain and I (and another brother in-law Mike H. and Bruce, the Cap'ns brother) will set out tomorrow for Oxford Mississippi and the Legendary Grove. Tickets this round are compliments of the Captain who is a Tide fan from California. He grew up on the panhandle of FLA, retired from the Air Force and a teaching career in Cal., and vacations every summer in Orange Beach. He and his wife are slowly but inexorably moving their way back to their roots and have recently purchased a year-round home in the area close to Foley, AL. The Captain has chosen to spend his fall days remodeling the house, watching SEC football and being in closer proximity to the Nirvana that is the SEC, the best football conference in the country!

We are visiting Ole Miss because of #2 University of Alabama playing in Oxford but since only one of the 4 of us is a Tide fan, (a Ga. Bulldog, Kentucky Wildcat and Fla. Gator make up the quartet) we all come to pay homage to the Holy Grail of Tailgating, The Grove at Ole Miss!

More to come after Saturday -"Hotty Toddy" Ya'll!!

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!