tailgating

 I’ve talked a decent amount about football on this blog. I mean it kind of makes sense, right? It’s a pretty passionate subject in this area, and since I’m in love with the area, they go hand in hand.

But just as I think that Penn State isn’t simply a school, I also don’t think that Penn State football (or any football in general for that matter) should be limited in definition to the confines of Beaver Stadium.

That’s right, I’m talking about tailgating.

Growing up with season tickets to Penn State games gave me experiences that hardly any other kids I knew could begin to understand. If they were lucky, maybe they got to go see an Eagles or Ravens game – if they were lucky.

They’d come back in to school on Monday and talk about how awesome it was. I couldn’t help but laugh in my head.

Only sixty thousand people were there?

You only “tailgated” for two hours?

These things blew my mind. Growing up tailgating in Happy Valley had totally (but thankfully) spoiled me in the art of tailgating. Noon games meant getting to the parking lot no later than 7:30 AM; 3:30 games were awesome, they had a similar arrival time and almost twice as much tailgating. The best though? Night games.

An 8:00 night game in Beaver Stadium is one of the coolest experiences ever. It started off sleeping in (relatively) – we’d probably get to a parking lot around 8:00-8:30 in the morning. It also meant that it was an extremely huge game on the schedule. In my memory, night games are highlighted by games like the Michigan State game when Larry Johnson broke 2,000 yards and the 40-7 Nebraska game.

The day is full of excitement, amazing food, awesome people (up to about forty, coming in up to four RV’s, for a big game), and victory would bring a great after party.

It is a culture. There’s RV Land, the car lots, grass spots, pavement spots, the opposing fans, and lifelong friends.  And I love it all.

Growing up tailgating at Penn State has taught me to take pride in my tailgating. Then again, that’s not so different than anything else here.