West Virigina Tailgate Wrap-Up:
My take on the tailgate:
By Bob W.
Overall:
Well today the D 7er’s took one more step on our journey to old man hood. Instead of starting at our customary 6 hours before kickoff, we did not arrive in the lot until 7:00 am. That in itself is not that bad, but the fact that no one resisted the move is what scares me. In another example of our maturation, no one was really drunk. In fact I would have cleared everyone at our tailgate to drive home, and that has certainly never happened before. Where is the puking? The belligerent behavior, the slurring and staggering? Of course the 90 degree heat (put this one in the L column for the weather desk) sweated out the beers as fast as we could drink them.
Tailgate Highlights:
But of course the West Virginia game is the one game of the year where the beer drinking takes a temporary back seat to the food. Once again and as always, the Gilmore’s came through in a big way and brought lots of great stuff. The Shrimp (my personal fav as you can see by the pix), the dip’s, the donuts, the sandwiches, the cheese, and even the colorful toothpicks were all top notch. Much thanks to the Gilmore’s for their never failing generosity to the D-7 tailgate.
Tailgate Lowlights:
This week there were two lowlights, not that the tailgate wasn’t great, but as I arrived first thing in the morning I couldn’t help but wonder if we could possibly have more bees. I mean seriously, we might as well had one of those box hives placed on the middle of the table. Maybe for the Virginia game we can all don bee suits and go about our business as if life were normal again. Playing flip cup may get nasty, trying to chug beer through the screened face covering but we could finally put our bee fears to rest.
The second low light was the heat. Does anyone realize it is September 17th! It isn’t supposed to be this friggin hot. I had originally called for a high of 72, and at the beginning of the week the forecast looked good, but each day the National Weather Service raised the high a little more. First to 78, then 82, then 86 and I think we officially ended the day yesterday over the 90 degree mark. Please Debbie Yow, the noon kickoffs may work in Big Ten country, but September is still way to hot in Maryland for anyone to enjoy them.
Tailgate MVP:
(Remember Italics means dream sequence) The scene opens and a pick up full of West Virgina fans bearing AK 47’s is talking smack to us. Shannon of course says something to offend them and they open fire on the beer pong table, J pushes Snively out of the way and dives in front of the table. The Hoopies drive off and J lays lifeless on the undamaged table. He briefly regains consciousness and whimpers “Oh no, I got blood on the table, sorry guys” then with the last bit of life running through his body, he gathers up his kitten like strength and begins wiping off the table until he finally expires. Everyone stands there stunned at what just happened.
Well of course it didn’t happen, and since that’s what it would have taken for someone other than the Gilmore’s to win this weeks MVP, there will be no controversy. This is the second career MVP in two years for everyone’s favorite family from Cumberland (remebering BJ’s family is from LaVale) and I am sure it won’t be the last. I think we all saw this award coming from miles away and they delivered as promised. And on a side note, I just want the Gilmore’s to know they are invited to EVERY Maryland tailgate, not just the West Virginia game, but of course Christmas can’t be everyday.
Honorable Mention:
I’ll give this weeks honorable mention to Mary. If Mary had shown up to the tailgate with any more pesticides I would have had to ask her to show her MDA pesticides license. So this weeks honorable mention goes to Mary for upgrading our bee defenses from manually swatting to deadly chemicals. Somewhere in Iraq, Saddam is very proud of you.
See you all at the Virginia game. Remember, we are 1-2 on the field, but still undefeated in the lot.