Tailgating…. The ultimate experience
It’s the scene of hundreds of tents, it’s the time in your life when you can cut loose, it’s the aroma of bar-b-que and alcohol, it’s the sound of the future running and playing, it’s the thunderous sounds of music and televisions, it’s the vision of thousands of crimson colored shirts, it’s the oneness that unites fans, it’s that warm feeling that you get deep down in your soul, it’s a tradition, its Alabama tailgating. Trying to describe tailgating at the University of Alabama is like trying to describe each snowflake that has ever fallen to a blind man. Tailgating is the experience that joints you and the University of Alabama.
Tailgating is the ultimate fan experience. You get to become part of the University Of Alabama, its a chance to get ready to live vicariously through each individual of a whole team. You get to experience real Alabama football in the heart of the campus on the quad, which gives you a sense that you are the one that pumps the blood to the team so that they can play better. You get to experience the great outdoors and the Roll Tide’s atmosphere. When the autumn brings in that new spirit of college football, when you start to see the leaves change, you get this overwhelming feeling that something bigger than you is about to happen. Its not until the actual season starts and you get out there that you really understand what is going on. The roar of the crowd, the yelling, the sense of hope that fills the air. Although not singing about it, a band by the name of Cartel sums it up so nicely in a song called “Luckie St” and I paraphrase, “there is a bitter cold chill in the air, that haunts every breath we take, but a hint of alcohol and nicotine keeps us warm inside. Its the time to roll your windows down, feel the cold air all around, and just know that not a thing can stop us now, plan to get carried away.” If you go to the quad and you don’t feel a sense of right, well you might just want to get your heartbeat checked.
People tailgate for a lot of different reasons: to get away and relax, to connect with old and new friends, or just because there is nothing else to do, but amongst all those reasons only one stood out from the rest. As I walked around the quad, amongst the Alabama fans, I saw an old gentleman and I asked him,” excuse me sir, but what do you get out of tailgating” and he responded,” I’ve been coming here for 6 plus year, so the real question is what don’t I get from this experience”, so I laughed and nodded my head, then I made my way to his grandson who was about the age of five or six, so I asked him, “what do you like about coming to tailgate little man” and he responded, “ I like to watch the game with my papa.” So, just from those two short conversations you get that Alabama tailgating is a tradition that brings family closer.
Now, post tailgating is a different beast all together. Each person if going to event pre-games to each his or her own way, whether it be from the eccentrics as painting up, or even getting costumes. To the new boys of the Greek section who are all wearing cheap sports jackets and even more piss-poor cologne. Each person chooses to get ready, but its how you deal with it after the game that makes it much more interesting. If you go through all the flamboyant histrionics and your team loses, chances are that you take the game a little more to heart as opposed to the casual fan who is just there to watch a ball game.
Tailgating works in several ways. It’s the ultimate fan get away, it creates bonds in families, and create traditions that will forever be passed on. Tailgating is a win win situation with the one exception. So, with all that said the question should not be what do you as an individual get out of tailgating, but as an individual what don’t you get out o