My World & Welcome to it…………….In Georgia football is King

Tags

fans, Football, Georgia, Humor

When I began this blog I made reference to High School Football in my world and indicated that I would get back to it at a later date. I needed time to do it justice since in Georgia football is king. For my non North American readers every town in the USA that has a high school reserves Friday nights in September through November for football even up in Alaska where they have to paint lines of the football fields on snow. Men, women, boys and girls living in California to Maine at the very least enjoy and even love football but for them there are any number of other things that could take their attention away from football. In Georgia and I am told to a bit lesser degree in other parts of the south football is King!

I had thought about writing this post weeks ago but I wanted to be sure that I treated the subject well. It needed to be just right because in Georgia you don’t mess with football.

On Fridays from August to November there is nothing more important than High School FOOTBALL. If the president ever comes to Georgia he had better not come to Georgia Friday nights in the fall as no one would know that he came. I am sure the Secret Service men and woman would be delighted when there is no one around to greet him or to heckle him. Heaven help him if he does come to Georgia on a Friday night to a High School Football game and delays the game in any way. There may not be an open revolt but to every fan on both side of the field he would be revolting. Folks in my world may not be the sharpest pencils in the box but if he ever did make that mistake come Election Day ballots cast would be for anyone but him.

The purpose of this post is to help readers who may be considering coming to a Georgia High School football game some fall Friday night in the future or simply just want to know why Georgia high school football fans are way more fanatical than any of the other football fans in any other part of the USA.

What makes football king in Georgia has less to do with what goes on in the football field than what goes on in the bleachers, in front of the concession stands, along the sidelines and in front of the restrooms in the football stadium. Now to be sure the game of football is pretty much played the same way all over the USA. Every Referee and umpire on the field has a book of rules that guarantees continuity of the game where ever the game is played. What goes on in the stands during the games are what makes Georgia Friday Night High School football unique.

To help those who did not grow up in Georgia understand the greatness of the experience that is a Friday night Georgia High School Football game one needs to talk to an expert.  Coincidentally putting modesty aside I am one such expert. To prove that I am an expert my credentials are as follows: I am a High School teacher in Georgia for the last ten seasons and have worked in the ticket booth, selling tickets, pass gates and bleachers for more than forty games. Plus I am a Southerner come lately.

To fully appreciate the Georgia High School Football experience to understand why football is King in Georgia one must understand the following unwritten rules:

1. It is considered bad form in Georgia to arrive at a game early* the term early refers to any time before a game begins until 30 minutes after it has begun.
2. Tickets are sold until the last seconds of a game and Georgia High school football fans will pay even as they complain about paying just so they can say later on that they were at the game.
3. It is good form to bring a huge bag of boiled peanuts with you to the game and to leave the empty wet slippery shells where ever people can most easily slip on them.
4. It is not a High School football game without a marching band. They don’t have to play a note that has anything to do with the music they attempt to play just as long as they play. One of the two football teams doesn’t have to show up for the game but as long as at least one marching band shows up it’s still a football game. Even if both football teams play a game it’s not a football game without a marching band in the bleachers, it’s a scrimmage.
5. Georgia High School football fanatics treat themselves very seriously. It is never a good idea to say anything remotely negative about their football team or give the impression of fixin to say anything negative about their football team. Saying anything negative or giving the impression of fixin to say anything negative about the other team is expected.
6. All rules are meant for everyone else.
7. (a) Knowing the score or even who is winning is not mandatory or even necessary for those attending a Georgia High School football game. (b) Even knowing a little bit of what is actually going on in a football game is also not necessary.
8. Going to the concession stand and or restroom at least four times per quarter is a time-honored tradition.
9. Yelling at the head coaches of either team and at every official is not only accepted it’s encouraged.
10. Complaining is a minor sport to be involved in by everyone at a football game including football players, coaches and fans. Complaining as a sport is not just done at a Georgia High School football game and is in fact done at all other athletic events and school functions including graduations. The biggest difference is that complaining at a Georgia High School football game has become an art form. The creative complaining at a football game is always loud accompanied by a wide range of body language and facial expressions. If the words are not always clearly understood one can be thankful that they are not.
11. Anytime a game is lost it’s blamed on the officials. If the loss is on the road a true Georgia High School football fan always blames home cooking* If the loss is at home it is blamed on the lack of home cooking.*

*For the Yankees from up north who might be reading this, home cooking has nothing to do with fine southern cooking. It refers to the decisions made by the officials making sure the game is played by the rules. If the officials are easier on the home team for rule violations than on the away team then it is assumed that the officials are supporting the home team or doing home cooking.

 As I write this I am watching an exciting game. The score is tied 21-21. I am at the edge of my seat I cannot believe it I would never try to do what is being done right in front of me especially with all of those boiled peanut shells to slip on. He is carrying 2 drinks, a nacho, a hot dog with lots of ketchup and pickle. He’s running, oh no he slips and fumbles. The drinks have landed on the big man with a very pretty date, (that will be trouble by half time), his pickle flies in to the horn one of the band members is fixin to play (that pickle is going to make a real sour note at half time) the nachos cheese are all over his head and face and who knows where the hot dog is. Fans, band members even some football players are doubled over in laughter. Clearly this is a victory for the fans. There just is nothing better than a Friday night High School football game in Georgia where once again football is king.

 

 

 

 

 

My World and Welcome to it…………………………………..Yuneek plants and snakes

Tags

Creativivity, Fishin, Georgia, outlook, snakes, words

The first posts on my blog focused entirely on where my world is but this post and others to follow are about some of what goes on in my world. Too often we spend our time focusing on our work a day, school a day world to a point where we miss the unique experiences happening all around us, we fail to see the unique animals and people who cross our paths every single day. We even trample some very unique plants under our feet missing the parts of life that  truly makes life worth living. As a writer and world observer I have had the privilege of meeting some pretty unique people and animals while having some unique experiences over the last several years and I hope continue to have those privileges for years to come. For the next three or more posts I want to share some of the most unique experiences, people and animals in my memory (not necessarily in time order).

The title of this post has the word Yuneek in it. There is so much in our world that is unique all we have to do is open our eyes to it. Even spelling words differently like Yuneek is in itself a measure of creativity except of course in public, private pre-k through 12th grade schools, colleges and most forms of literature. A few poets like e.e. cumming have made a career out of creative spelling and punctuation but that has not happened often, not often enough in my opinion.I wood reely likee to write a boook come pletely with creatively spelled worrds inn itt but who wud reed itt? Who cood?  I believe that creative spelling is a sign of a brilliant mind. It must be I spell creatively a lot and I am brilliant, at least I think that I am. Being unique should be something we all strive for. It should be a badge of courage, of enlightenment even but it’s not such positive thing any more…………………………sigh. it is for me though.

The photo at the beginning of this post is that of a common ordinary weed, a dandelion. This is a plant that some wage war against when it is found in their yard (well maybe not in Georgia but in a lot of other places). Some use it to make wine though I can not imagine why (this is not unique it borders on redneck), but few would ever call it pretty, yet when I placed that dandelion bloom in the center of a log partially ax chopped, it became the belle of the ball.This is a weed that most certainly should be called unique.

Snakes are unique as far as I am concerned. One might even say they are fascinating. When  was a child I would be drawn to snakes at reptile houses at zoos. My fascination with snakes came to an abrupt end when 20 or so years later I was doing pest control and almost jumped into a utility area that had several rat snakes swirling in and around the utilities. I probably should have called a pest control man, one who had at least a bat in his truck…………. the kind baseball is played with that is.

A few years ago after some weeks of my children playing practical jokes on their old Dad for reasons I will get into in another post. I found myself being extra careful everywhere I went.  I was gazing out over my  large front yard and saw what I thought was a 3 foot long rubber snake. I had to take care of it as quickly as I could to keep one of the girls from screaming and all 8 of the dogs from howling. The dogs and one of my daughters needed very little incentive to scream and howl. For 5 days or so I had a steady diet of both. To prevent this from happening by a carefully placed rubber snake I  walked out to it with the purpose of getting rid of the toy. I am not sure to this day why I picked the “rubber snake” up and swung it around above my head like half a lasso but I did. For a minute or so it was a lot of fun. I will admit that I am easily amused but still swinging that snake somewhat like I was doing a hammer throw was kind of relaxing. It was that is until I saw the head of the snake open and shut it’s mouth several times. I am not sure exactly when the dogs began to howl or who screamed. I am not even sure how high that snake went when I released it. I only know for sure that if there was an Olympic snake hurling event  I would have earned a gold medal. (PETA members who might be reading this, please forgive me.I just didn’t know.) Do snakes bounce? This snake was truly unique. I have always heard that snakes can blend in with their surroundings but to look like a rubber snake is truly remarkable.

A friend of mine a high school football coach shared with me this account about snakes. I know it must be true because he doesn’t lie more than 5 or 6 times a day, besides that he goes to church most Sundays so that’s something. We live near the Flint River which is famous for it’s brown green water (impossible to see what is eating your toes should you choose to swim in it), it’s world class bass fishing, it’s alligators and it’s water moccasins, though outside of Central Georgia not so many know about the later two.

Coach or as the say in Georgia Coa had invited his father in law, two teachers (but not me) and two old men to fish with him on his new boat. They had been fishin for a good long while and had only caught one bass worth keeping. Finally after being skunked for so long and being out of beer they decided to motor down river a bit. After a while they saw what appeared to be an island but might have been a pile of garbage. As they got closer they found it was indeed an island.

One of the old guys who had been complaining more than just a little suggested that they pull up to the island let him and his folding chair get off the boat and onto the island to fish for an hour or two. The rest of the fishing party completely agreed as his whining had gotten so bad that they all considered trolling for a spell and using him as bait. Very quickly he got his chair out of the boat, set up and his fishing pole out. He was sure that this was going to be a fishin experience of his life. He was not going to be wrong but not because of the fish that he caught. He had just settled in on his chair and had his line in the water when he began to look around. He looked left and was impressed by the beauty of the Flint. The problem occurred when he looked right. When he looked right he saw that just 3 or 4 feet away from him were 6 of the largest water moccasins, he had ever seen or anyone else on the boat had ever seen for that matter.  As he gazed in horror the snakes suddenly becoming active and with a delighted look on their snake faces. As they looked at him they saw a new addition to their food supply. They must have thought, “Oh good food from heaven and it’s a buffet lunch for everyone.” Coach said, “As God is my witness, the old man and the chair jumped from where he was on the island to the same spot his chair was in on the boat not 8 minutes earlier. Not only that but the old man seemed to forget how to speak since he didn’t say another word until we got back to the boat loading zone  some 2 hours later, plus within 5 minutes after the old man reentered the boat  the bass really began to bite. Funny thing is when those bass started to bite the fishing was as good as I have ever known.” I said,  “Look this is a great story but it’s the biggest whopper I have ever heard. I know that I am a yankee but come on………….” He said,”If I’m lyin I’m dyin.”  It must be a true story since there are only three things he won’t lie about unless he absolutely has to, football of course, fishin and huntin. Now this fishin story is a unique one as are the fishermen that remember it though most fishermen and women are unique in their own right.

The thing is what is unique is totally subjective. For us to see the uniqueness in something depends upon our outlook. There is uniqueness even in communication. For example the other day I was asked if I knew the time. I replied yep and continued walking. Now he might have thought that I was rude by my response but I really think that what I said was actually unique. Just as my response is when I am asked what my watch says and I respond, “Nothing my watch doesn’t talk.”  These are two examples of unique comments though probably not the best ones to make to people I want to be friends with.

* This post would have been published hours ago except that am still trying to understand Word Press and hit a button that completely deleted my post, granted that the deletion was unique (I hope) but it did cause me to sing a very unique song some of which might even be OK for children to hear. Please forgive me for taking so long.