Gilson had the awesome idea of getting down to Oxford, MS to see the Rebels play against Samford in a classic good team beats the crap out of bad team game. Karl, naturally, was away for the weekend, choosing to go woo his ladyfriend's family into letting him marry their daughter. After spending Friday night watching CNN and killing a couple brews, it was a welcome change to have something planned to get us the heck out of Midtown Memphis.
Early Saturday, Gilson and I got up and put in a solid 10 on the roads of Memphis. Aiming to head out by 11:00 or so, we scarfed down breakfast after the run and hit the road. This was only my third journey into the territory that is Mississippi. Once we got a few miles down in I-55, we knew we weren't in Memphis anymore – open fields, no neighborhoods, and beautiful looking schools greeted us driving on the path to Oxford.
On the way down, I got started thinking about the history of Mississippi and segregation. Gilson and I talked about how unlikely it was for a white person in MS to vote for Obama in the election. It's boggling to think that there are still people alive who actively participated in the racial segregation of the country. How in the world could those same people elect a black President? Probably couldn't, we guessed. Yet, certainly some children of those segregationist southerners would be voting for Obama. I was trying to work out in my head how kids could grow up in that environment and not feel uncomfortable voting for Obama. My limited interactions with souther belles have given me some insight into the different types of people that still come out of the South. Anyways back to the adventure of the game.
We got down to Oxford in about an hour and half. It took us a while to find where to park – we drove onto the campus, got turned around a few times, and then finally circumnavigated most of the school and ended up parking off campus. We passed sorority and fraternity rows, which house some of the most hilarious people I've had contact with down here in Memphis. Surprisingly, we thought, there wasn't too much trouble finding parking that was only about a 10 minute walk from the stadium.
After parking, we walked over towards the Grove, the location of one of the best tailgates in the SEC. Not really having any idea where to go, we followed the general flow of people. We got on campus right around 1pm. Strangely though, we heard no noise coming from the football stadium. In fact, we could see tons of empty seats instead of frenzied, drunk Rebs fans. We walked through the Grove, and saw that it was only beginning to fill up. The tailgate parties were still in their sober stages.
Gilson and I made a costly mistake – the game was scheduled for 6pm, rather than 1pm. We felt like morons and regretted our coming down so early, but instead of thinking clearly, we panicked. Rather than embracing the 5 hour wait as a direct sign from God to party with his disciples at the Grove, we got scared, sold our tickets to a scalper, and got the hell out of there. Soon we regretted our hasty retreat and I second guessed us the whole way home. Only if we weren't stupid enough to leave for the game without checking for what time it started. It would have certainly been the perfect evening outing with Gilson, my new BFF.
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