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West Virginia Tailgate Wrap-Up:

            -Lot 1 College Park

My take on the tailgate: 

“Go F’ yourself ”

                        -Lot 1 parking attendant when we asked if we could enter at 1:30 pm

Overall:

The old Thursday night game, it’s a double edge sword.  The night time game is always a blast, but when I see them on the schedule, I often forget that this is basically wasted tailgate time.  In years past, we’ve always been told, no tailgating until 4:30, and it seems we have always been able to skirt our way around it, but 2007 is a different year.  We were turned away from every conceivable entrance to lot 1 and any attempt to reason with the guards was just wasted breath.  Things have tightened up in the ole U of M lots.

So when kicked out of our normal parking spot, we were left little choice but to improvise.  Enter the College Park United Methodist Church.  Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open Doors….Open Parking!  Of course it was just Chris and I and we didn’t want to unpack the table knowing that we’d have to pack it right back up at any minute, so we were left with little to do.  Now for this generation of kids, this would be unthinkable, but being that we are from the last generation to grow up without ipods, PS2’s, DVD’s, laptops, and cell phones we able entertain ourselves. 

The first game we came up with was William Tell.  Pretty simple, you take a fold up chair, leave it folded up and place a solo cup on top.  Then try to hit the cup off of the chair.  You get 3 chances and once you hit it, move back to the next parking space.  In this game I clearly had the advantage.  The next game was Fire Lane.  Take a “No Parking-Fire Lane” sign that is embedded in cement, take a football, and try to hit the sign.  Again I started out strong but eventually Chris warmed up, and I’d have to give him the nod by the end.  As the thrill of throwing the little “Chick-Filet” football began to ware out, we were joined by Lee.  Lee was brave enough to face the DC traffic and travel in from Pittsburg to catch this match up.  And he must have also brought some luck, because before he had been there for too long, the lots opened up. 

Once the lots did open up, things began to resemble a normal tailgate.  We immediately jumped into horse racing, then LRC, and then Flip Cup.  For the first time this year, the flip cup game actually resembled what a flip cup game was supposed to look like.  Overall I thought the tailgate went off great even with the late start and the general chaos surrounding a Thursday Night game.  I am still waiting though for that 6 hour all day everyone’s there tailgate.   I think it is coming for Georgia Tech, and I can’t wait.

Tailgate Highlights:

The tailgate highlight was when we heard across the parking lot that Lot 1 was open.  Not only did it mean we could begin really tailgating.  It meant that we could put the table back in the truck (more on that later). 

Tailgate Lowlights:

I doubt anyone won’t be able to figure out what this rant is about, but why can’t we cancel classes for Thursday night games.  I mean how often do we have a Thursday night games in College Park?  Once every two years?  So we cancel classes for half a day twice during a kids college career.  If I’m not mistaken I don’t believe I had a single snow day my entire time at Maryland (keeping in mind I missed 1996-97).  So if for the four years I was in college they cancelled a total of one day of classes, then I would have only been jipped out of one lousy day over 4 years!

Sure the purpose of the College is to educate the youth of our state, at least it used to be.  Now it seems that they want only the best and the brightest to improve our GPA and incoming SAT Scores, meanwhile perfectly smart everyday normal kids are reduced to going to other neighboring states to get their education.  But enough of the preaching about our “increasing standards”, which is a subject I could probably write 4 pages about.  College is about going to class, but it is also about being part of a community.  Football (and basketball for that matter) builds that sense of community. 

In two years we will be landing at some airport in California.  We’ll see people on the west coast wearing Red and White and we’ll wave and give them a nod and a hello.  Not because we had class together, but because we share the common hopes and fears of being a Maryland fan.  We know where we were when Len Bias died, when Juan led us to the Championship, when “Lights Out” made is first flip of the switch.  For one afternoon, can’t we be more about community than academic stats?

Flip Cup Results:

What the hell was I thinking when I put this section in here?  Flip Cup is the part of the tailgate that I have the most trouble remembering, so I don’t know why I made it it’s own section.  Anyway, the flip cup on Thursday was very lively.  I think the team I was on dominated early, but faded down the stretch.  I also think I gave the Black Widow a nice pep talk, but I don’t remember if it worked, but I think it did. 

Next tailgate we are going to have to video tape these games so that I can review what actually transpired. 

Weather Report Card:

Well, well, well what can I say.  So far things have gone pretty well for the D7 weather center.  Of course there really hasn’t been any out on the limb forecasts, but if this keeps up, I may have to quit my day job.

The “Save the Terrapin” Drive:

We’re moving right along with the 2007 Terrapin Drive.  On Thursday, despite the late deployment of the table, we raised $32.50.  This brings our total for the year up to $69.50. 

Tailgate MVP:

There are a lot of ways I can go on this, and the end result may surprise some, but you know what.  I’m going with Mr. Leavitt as the D7 Tailgate MVP.  Mr. Leavitt, or Dr. Leavitt as Megan likes to refer to him as, was the first man in.  He held down the forts until the lots were open and made sure we were in our regular space.  Much like the Oklahoma Sooners of the land rush days, or the more relevant to today’s time… “Preakness Sprinters”, Mr. Leavitt saw an opportunity to jump the gun, and took it.  Not to forget he also funded about 50% of the horse racing game.

Honorable Mention (in no particular order): 

A lot of Honorable mentions this week, first of all Surin for stopping by Wawa and getting us subs.  They were life savers around midnight.  So there is one mention, mention number 2 through 4 goes to Myself, Jason, and Chris.  We were about 30 steps into a task which would have won us D7 immortality by taking the table from the Church parking lot across the street to the regular spot, but luckily someone informed us that the lots were now open, therefore the Herculean effort was never realized. 

I would also like to add Jen to the HM column for keeping watch over the Leavitts car while Mr. Leavitt went ahead and Jason went to go help us man handle the table.  Plus she stuck it out until the very end when it was just us 6 in the parking lot smoking cigars we found on the ground (or was that just me?).

Conclusion

Next tailgate is September 29^th unless there is someone going to the Wake game that I don’t know about.  Otherwise there should be a decent contingent of us going up the NJ Turnpike to take on the Knights who like to run up the score on small schools.  Until then, don’t forget:

• 4:30 really DOES mean 4:30
• A half inch of snow can cancel classes, but a Thursday Night Game can’t
• You can drink pudding
• And a D7 Forecast is something you can take to the bank!

Now let’s BEAT WAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!