I have a couple of NY teenagers who have never been to a college FB game. Lacrosse and soccer are the big deals. So I spent a bunch on StubHub and got 45 yard line tkts on the 4th row behind our bench. Flew to NY to pick up a car. Had requested a Budget full sized car, but the guy at the counter offered that if I were going that far he would take the Ford Explorer for $50 more. So after school away we go. Pretty heavy rain in PA, but it was 4 lane and a straight shot. Cruising along on control, radio on, and life was good. Suddenly red lights in the rear view. I pulled over....looked for the dome light switch. Rolled the passenger side window down for the Trooper. "You don't have any tail lights" I mumbled something about just picking up a rental car and he replied "That's the problem" and came around to my side, reached in and turned on the lights. I had driven a few hundred miles on the automatic lights...not knowing that there were other lights! Nice guy,. "Where are you going?" "FB at WVA." "Have a nice time" and walked away.
Next morning pulled into Morgantown. Had thoughts of parking at the BB place, but was full at 9A. Drove by a couple of lots full of campers that had parties in full swing. So down to Fat Daddy's for the KSU pregame. Downtown is more like KU with what in the 40s had been fancy stores, now smoke shops, MJ, food places, etc. Crowded, but mostly Easterners finally able to get to a KSU game. Met a few player's parents, kid got bored, went elsewhere to eat, and headed to the people mover. Automated, but they had guys at the gate. Turns out before you get the gate open you push the destination bar and that tells the next car where to go. Doesn't work well if someone is blasted or confused and pushes some other stop. More than a few cars left to destinations unknown, empty.
Half a mile walk from the terminal to the parking lot thru people actually tailgating. Every ten feet someone came over and said something like "Thanks for coming" or such, offered food or a drink. Really a neat crowd and southern hospitality. All wanted to chat.
So we set with the high rollers. Typically rich guys bitching about their poor play. Many left at half. There was some paper (what we would call flash cards in the 50s) in plastic bags on the seats. After the first quarter we were to hold them up for two minutes at the end of the first quarter. Made a big banner saying Mountaineers across the stadium, except for the M end which was a bit fuzzy....students were buzzed or had traded cards.
Second half students filtered down where the rollers left. I started getting questions about our QB's passing, why we couldn't remember our plays, why we didn't sit our QB down for a bit as we had an experienced one on the sidelines. Not trash talking, talking FB. I told them to ask HCBS. One of them had a roommate on their defense. He commented that all that switching plays did nothing as they would set in one scheme and switch to another just before the snap. Their attitude was that all of that just screwed up our O's mind.
Game over. The crowd stood and sang the entire WV song. Nobody left. Then the PA announced that the people mover was down and that we needed to take the buses at the bottom of the hill so we followed the crowd (wife has two total knees!). Then they announced that the mover was working and no more buses. Back up the hill and further to the movers. Seems that they have had some control problems that they can't diagnose. Again crowd in line was friendly and pleased as they hadn't beaten us in living memory. We got to downtown and the mover died again as we got off.
Conclusions: We have a modern and sterile facility. Somehow I like the ambience of WVA much better. Just feels college. KSU has a great crowd, but southern hospitality?????? Make that no liquor, maybe.
No more long posts. Sorry
Next morning pulled into Morgantown. Had thoughts of parking at the BB place, but was full at 9A. Drove by a couple of lots full of campers that had parties in full swing. So down to Fat Daddy's for the KSU pregame. Downtown is more like KU with what in the 40s had been fancy stores, now smoke shops, MJ, food places, etc. Crowded, but mostly Easterners finally able to get to a KSU game. Met a few player's parents, kid got bored, went elsewhere to eat, and headed to the people mover. Automated, but they had guys at the gate. Turns out before you get the gate open you push the destination bar and that tells the next car where to go. Doesn't work well if someone is blasted or confused and pushes some other stop. More than a few cars left to destinations unknown, empty.
Half a mile walk from the terminal to the parking lot thru people actually tailgating. Every ten feet someone came over and said something like "Thanks for coming" or such, offered food or a drink. Really a neat crowd and southern hospitality. All wanted to chat.
So we set with the high rollers. Typically rich guys bitching about their poor play. Many left at half. There was some paper (what we would call flash cards in the 50s) in plastic bags on the seats. After the first quarter we were to hold them up for two minutes at the end of the first quarter. Made a big banner saying Mountaineers across the stadium, except for the M end which was a bit fuzzy....students were buzzed or had traded cards.
Second half students filtered down where the rollers left. I started getting questions about our QB's passing, why we couldn't remember our plays, why we didn't sit our QB down for a bit as we had an experienced one on the sidelines. Not trash talking, talking FB. I told them to ask HCBS. One of them had a roommate on their defense. He commented that all that switching plays did nothing as they would set in one scheme and switch to another just before the snap. Their attitude was that all of that just screwed up our O's mind.
Game over. The crowd stood and sang the entire WV song. Nobody left. Then the PA announced that the people mover was down and that we needed to take the buses at the bottom of the hill so we followed the crowd (wife has two total knees!). Then they announced that the mover was working and no more buses. Back up the hill and further to the movers. Seems that they have had some control problems that they can't diagnose. Again crowd in line was friendly and pleased as they hadn't beaten us in living memory. We got to downtown and the mover died again as we got off.
Conclusions: We have a modern and sterile facility. Somehow I like the ambience of WVA much better. Just feels college. KSU has a great crowd, but southern hospitality?????? Make that no liquor, maybe.
No more long posts. Sorry
