Tail-Gatoring. It’s All Coin Tosses and Cockabooses.
This is last Saturday and this is not Madison, Georgia.
- I forgot the table.
It had been so long since I had been somewhat responsible for a tailgate…I forgot the table. We improvised with coolers. They worked great, until someone got thirsty. But it was a beautiful day to travel two hours from Madison to Columbia, South Carolina to see the Florida Gators play the Gamecocks.
The Cardwells and Miles try to do this every year.
Joe Cardwell grew up like me in Central Florida, but he was a southpaw for Gamecock Baseball. Surely, he pulls for Florida at these things, but feels compelled every year to wear his SC gear. And so does his lovely wife, Kathryn, who went to Kansas.
Lots better weather this year than last.
Gainesville, 2008
I am not making a hand puppet. That’s a baby Gator chomp.
We usually don’t have any trouble picking up tickets at the game. This year was no exception. We found two pairs and decided it would be “boys club” and “girls club.” Joe mentioned one set was upper deck, one pair lower. I distinctly remember saying, “We can just flip a coin.”
We ate, drank…tried some of the Cardwell’s wings..
See. We can still be best of friends (until kick off).
Then headed for the stadium.
This trek entails running a gauntlet of these things called Cockabooses.
How about $300,000 for a Cockaboose?
We have partied in a Cockaboose after South Carolina beat Florida four years ago. I didn’t care for a repeat stint of hanging around after the game in a caboose filled with happy Cocks. Deliriously happy. Please not another immersion in their Cocky, giddy happiness. Nothing personal.
So we gals were handed our pair of tickets. (Funny, no coin toss.) Up we went.
Kat and I were perched here among the Cocks.
They really were okay seats. Notice a lot of raised hands. The stadium rocked and rolled. You’d have thought they were playing the Number One team or something.
Oh. I guess the Gators are.. but to me, they’re just my dear boys I have gone to see play football since I was five years old. When they were never number one, never on television and went to the All-American Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.
They have become a football powerhouse with a perennial target on their back. And that crowd wanted something BAD. Especially the man sitting directly off my left shoulder screaming constantly into what used to be my good ear. He must have some “issues.” Wow. Talk about scream therapy.
South Carolina played a great game. The more they stayed close — the more the crowd roared.
HELP!!!
I did learn my camera had a good lens.
I have a really good lens. Because we were on another planet from Tebow.
Madisonian Julie Speyer texted me during the game asking were our seats were…was John wearing a blue shirt, she thought she had just seen him on TV? John on television? Surely, not. Why would there be any cameras, anywhere near where he was sitting?
Mid-way through the game we got a text from the “boys club” …a picture from their seats.
The menfolk's view.
Hmm. Those wise-guys probably were on television.
BAD!! No coin toss.
Well, honestly, it was just great to go to a game. Even more joyous that the Gators pulled through. My hubby continues to protest he had no knowledge of where their seats were ~ throwing Joe completely under the bus. Or should I say…under the Cockaboose.
So next year it’s back to Gainesville. Woot!
And “Heads.” Most definitely, it will be heads.
i look good in blue.
Yeah. But next year, you won’t have to worry about looking good. Kat and I will be in the TV zone. 😛
Thanks for the “fair and balanced” tretment of my fellow Gamecock tailgaters. Gotta admit we have great fans considering the product they put on the field each year. John would lookbetter in garnet and black, by the way.
Well, the Gamecock fans do love their team…I’ll give you that. Even Spurrier, hemming and hawing about the loss, said 2 or 3 times how he had never heard the fans like that and how great they were. (listening to radio after game.) Don’t know about John in garnet though. Might completely wash him out….
So I see you’re a Gator fan (BOOOOOO)……..GOOOOO FSU!!! 🙂
Oh…I guess having a brother who was an all- ACC player at FSU might cause you to root for the Seminoles. Guess the big game is next up for the Gators. Playing the Noles is always cause for concern..
[…] the past six years, we have been traveling with the Cardwells of Madison to see the UF/SC game. Joe Cardwell grew up in Central Florida but played baseball for South […]