RVs roll in by the dozen. They exit off I-2o coming in both directions and head towards the outskirts of campus. They start arriving on Thursday, and on some big game weekends their influx starts on Wednesday - beginning their massive takeover of our institution for the next few days. The parking lots around our beautiful campus methodically fill up with die hard football fans who will soon begin their tailgating festivities. This is a cult following that every saturday during the fall season travels around the southeast following the Alabama Crimson Tide. Every university with any football tradition has these fanatics, the ones who take off half of the work week in order to start prepping for Saturday's big game. So, the campers get settled in, creating their impromptu homes for the weekend..... They set up tables surrounding their area, connect televisions and radios to the RV's power supply, organize coolers properly, align chairs systematically and do all of this with precision and exactness in order to accomodate the numerous groups of friends and family that will stop by in the coming days to eat, drink and share the joy of football in the South. After all, this is their home until Sunday morning.
Friday comes and Tuscaloosa is considerably overcrowded. The town of 100,000 is now bombarded with atleast 150,000. Hotels are full, dorm rooms are packed, and old college bungaloo houses hold students from neighboring colleges - sleeping on the floor, on the couch, wherever they can lay their heads. After all, it is Friday morning when they wake and they most likely went out drinking the previous night - played a game of beer pong, or funneled one too many beers, thus the sleeping arrangements aren't paramount.... They will sleep just fine. Their friends that actually go to school here are most likely too hungover to go to class, and are simply resting up for the coming weekend - trying to deter the oncoming headache - usually some wings at Buffalo Phils does the trick, or a hearty breakfast from The Waysider. But the restaurants are packed and have a consistent hour long wait, and if you are looking to make reservations for Friday night you are atleast two weeks late, because there isn't a chance in hell you are gonna get one. Even with cancellations every restaurant in town is overbooked. Streets are blocked off with police baracades as they direct traffic, trying to maintain some sense of order as old college buddies wander the streets bouncing from bar to bar reminiscing about the good ole days - the days when they wandered these streets as students, inhabitants of this utopia. Friday night comes and the energy on the streets and around town is electric with chants of "Roll Tide Roll", as drunken college kids scream the chorus to "Sweet Home Alabama". They will be hoarse before the game on Saturday even starts, and after a game weekend in Tuscaloosa you will vow to never enjoy listening to that song ever again - it is played that much. Sorority girls dab their makeup on, getting ready for the hoardes of fraternity parties they will attend where they will drink crappy keg beer and Hunch Punch - a lethal concoction of juices, rum and if I had to guess, lighter fluid, that with a couple sips makes me feel like a lightweight, like I am eighteen again, trying to choke down that first beer that I hadn't acquired a taste for yet. They will get drunk, be asleep by midnight and most likely not remember anything after 10 PM, but that means that they will get a good night's sleep, which is important because they will be awakened at 10 am to commence the tailgating festivities....Everyone in town is up at 10 AM to get ready for this game, afterall that is what all of the commotion and excitement is about.
Saturday morning comes and the streets are lined with crimson, and every passing car seems to have an Alabama flag hanging from it. Groups of fraternity guys in khakis, buttondowns and sports coats walk their cute sundress wearing dates over to Bryant-Denny stadium on this prototypical fall day. Vendors are on every corner with hats, shirts, and other paraphenalia. The quadrangle, surrounded by white columned buildings, has been held captive by football fans - Tents with tables, chairs and TVs begin to fill with food. Chicken wings are frying; this I know because you can smell the poultry flecked oil from a mile away. Charcoal brickettes are being dusted with the juice from hamburgers and hotdogs, igniting the air with smoke and the heavenly smell we are all so familiar with - the smell that is so very American. Beers are poured into sixteen ounce red cups and flasks are filled with whiskey as tailgaters ready for the big game. Faces are stuffed with food and the tables that were once filled with burgers, wings, brats and brownies are now being packed up - saving some for later, for the postgame festivities, assuming we win. The streets and sidewalks that were once crowded are now unbearably full as game time approaches. The band in perfect uniformity marches, following the cheerleaders into the stadium . They play the school's fight song as on-lookers cheer, knowing that in a couple short minutes the game will have begun, and there will really be something to cheer about. Fathers hold the hands of their precious young daughters who marvel at the cheerleaders. They are wearing a smaller version of the same uniform, cheering the same cheers, dreaming of being here, a student, as one of them a short decade from now. They were born to into being an Alabama fan.... it wasn't a choice, it was a birth right, a destiny of sorts.
So, the game plays, and chances are we won - unless the game I am recounting occured during my tenure at this beautiful university. I'm not sure what our record was while I attended the University of Alabama, but it wasn't good - this didn't matter though. I guess that is what I am writing about. Tailgating stems from a passion and a pride for an institution - college or professional. It is about sharing a common pride, a common loyalty. So yes, for me Tuscaloosa, Alabama will always be the tailgating epicenter, the mecca of football tradition and pride, but as you read this I know you will have your own set of memories, stories and understandings of football and the pride associated with truly being part of a team, a university, an institution. I guess, what I am saying is, we tailgate for football games, but at the end of the day it is about so much more. It is about being a part of something. My heart aches for those beloved Saturdays in Tuscaloosa as a student, rallying around our football team, our university and the cammaradie that is the Crimson Nation.
Post you favorite tailgating stories..... maybe it will come from this weekend.... I am gonna post mine on Sunday.... Alec and Seth.... this is for you...... Y'all have a great weekend..... I am off to spend my weekend in the mountains of North Carolina with a bunch of Ohio State fans. All I have to say is - who is undefeated and number one in the country? That's right. Roll Tide. I actually might get to watch the game this week......
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