LJ Idol: Back in the Habit
alycewilson asked me to be her partner in this week's LJ Idol Home Game, so here's my contribution for the topic "Back in the Habit." You can read her contribution on the topic Thrown to the Lions. And be sure to read her post on the topic Brown Baggin' It, on a concept we worked on together.
Growing up, my parents were good about taking my siblings and me to go enjoy sporting events as a family. I have memories of attending Phillies games at the old Veteran’s Stadium, watching Big Five basketball games in the Palestra, even seeing the Olympic ice skaters on tour in the old Spectrum when the Ice Capades was in town. As we grew up and moved out of the house, however, family get-togethers tended to be limited to Thanksgiving dinner instead of going out as a group to watch a sport. So when my brother offered us all tickets to the Penn State football game at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field in November of 2007, we thought it was a good time to get back in the habit of by-gone family fun.
I had never been to a Penn State game before. While my brother and sister, as Penn State alumni, were seasoned veterans; I was a newbee. I hoped that our sitting in the alumni section in a venue which charged somewhere between four and six dollars per beer would result in my not experiencing firsthand the stories my siblings would tell me of wearing other people’s alcohol in the student section at Happy Valley when the game would get really exciting.
The game was in fact a home game for the Temple Owls, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at the crowd, the majority of whom were donning their blue and white. I was actually working at Temple’s Medical School at the time, so I jokingly threatened to wear cherry and white to the game. My sister strongly advised against it, unless, of course, I wanted to get beat up. I wound up wearing a navy blue coat - not because I was necessarily rooting for Penn State, but because it was the warmest, largest coat I owned. That day was frigid, and we all had to layer up in long-underwear, hats, gloves and earmuffs.
I didn’t really care who won or lost, so long as it was a good game. In the end, Temple didn’t get any points on the board, but they came out fired up and had several impressive offensive possessions. So it wasn’t long before I found out that they play this piercing owl screech every time the team makes a first down. It sounded a lot like the opening of The Colbert Report without the music - or the jokes. It seemed to me that a celebratory sound ought to be less annoying than that. Nonetheless, my father would chuckle every time I would cover my gloved hands over my earmuffs in a vain attempt to protect my eardrums from the excruciating noise, saying “Oh no, here we go again!” like I was a little girl.
The crowd was actually much better behaved than I had anticipated. That was the one and only time I had been to the Linc, so all I had to go on were news stories of Eagles fans getting out of hand, and what my brother and sister would admit went on at the Penn State home games at State College. The crowd was spirited, but overall polite and nobody got into a brawl. (I’m sure it helped that I heeded my sister’s advice and did not wear any Temple gear!) My brother even offered to treat us all hotdogs and beers, in addition to having bought the tickets.
In the end, our attending that Penn State - Temple football game was a rare family outing we all enjoyed and will remember fondly for years to come. While our habit of attending sporting events together has naturally become infrequent as we’ve all grown older, I hope it’s a family tradition we revisit every now and again in the future.
Growing up, my parents were good about taking my siblings and me to go enjoy sporting events as a family. I have memories of attending Phillies games at the old Veteran’s Stadium, watching Big Five basketball games in the Palestra, even seeing the Olympic ice skaters on tour in the old Spectrum when the Ice Capades was in town. As we grew up and moved out of the house, however, family get-togethers tended to be limited to Thanksgiving dinner instead of going out as a group to watch a sport. So when my brother offered us all tickets to the Penn State football game at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field in November of 2007, we thought it was a good time to get back in the habit of by-gone family fun.
I had never been to a Penn State game before. While my brother and sister, as Penn State alumni, were seasoned veterans; I was a newbee. I hoped that our sitting in the alumni section in a venue which charged somewhere between four and six dollars per beer would result in my not experiencing firsthand the stories my siblings would tell me of wearing other people’s alcohol in the student section at Happy Valley when the game would get really exciting.
The game was in fact a home game for the Temple Owls, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell by looking at the crowd, the majority of whom were donning their blue and white. I was actually working at Temple’s Medical School at the time, so I jokingly threatened to wear cherry and white to the game. My sister strongly advised against it, unless, of course, I wanted to get beat up. I wound up wearing a navy blue coat - not because I was necessarily rooting for Penn State, but because it was the warmest, largest coat I owned. That day was frigid, and we all had to layer up in long-underwear, hats, gloves and earmuffs.
I didn’t really care who won or lost, so long as it was a good game. In the end, Temple didn’t get any points on the board, but they came out fired up and had several impressive offensive possessions. So it wasn’t long before I found out that they play this piercing owl screech every time the team makes a first down. It sounded a lot like the opening of The Colbert Report without the music - or the jokes. It seemed to me that a celebratory sound ought to be less annoying than that. Nonetheless, my father would chuckle every time I would cover my gloved hands over my earmuffs in a vain attempt to protect my eardrums from the excruciating noise, saying “Oh no, here we go again!” like I was a little girl.
The crowd was actually much better behaved than I had anticipated. That was the one and only time I had been to the Linc, so all I had to go on were news stories of Eagles fans getting out of hand, and what my brother and sister would admit went on at the Penn State home games at State College. The crowd was spirited, but overall polite and nobody got into a brawl. (I’m sure it helped that I heeded my sister’s advice and did not wear any Temple gear!) My brother even offered to treat us all hotdogs and beers, in addition to having bought the tickets.
In the end, our attending that Penn State - Temple football game was a rare family outing we all enjoyed and will remember fondly for years to come. While our habit of attending sporting events together has naturally become infrequent as we’ve all grown older, I hope it’s a family tradition we revisit every now and again in the future.