Big 10 Football - oh yeah!

I'm a spring/summer person. Fall/winter are not my favorite times of year. But an element has been added to autumn the last ten years that has made it much more palatable. And that element is: Big Ten Football! I live in the shadow of Michigan State University. I graduated from the school years ago. Until 1994, I had attended exactly ONE football game. Fortunately that has changed.

The boss has season tickets given to him. He only goes to one or two games. (Of course, the MICHIGAN game is usually high on the list of the games he goes to, but two years ago *grin*). He divies the rest of the tickets up among the staff. The only criteria is...you must go! He hates to give away tickets and then hear that they weren't used.

Back in 1994, my nephew Paul was my companion to the games. He was seven years old, but my sister and her husband somehow let him go. He was so little but so interested in the game. I remember that it was an Indiana game, and we sat way up in the next to the last row of the south side of the stadium. He would ask questions and most of the time I could answer them. We stayed until the very end of the game.

A precedent was started that year. Paul still goes to the games with me, even though now he's a tall 16-year-old and I have to ask him about some of the calls. Now he leads through the crowds, his height and broad shoulders cutting an easy swath through the masses. He's a mighty nice kid.

As a family we started doing a group trip to the stadium in 1995. This year we're set for the October homecoming game. We'll have a fine tailgate, good talk, and hopefully a win for our Spartans.

So be prepared if you stop by the OTHER SIDE during the next few months ... you're in Spartan Country!