For the first time in 71 years, Bluefield College hosted a home football game. When I was a student at Bluefield, the most gridiron action we saw was during our flag football intramural games. Now students have a chance to play for real. Students have a chance to cheer on the Rams on a real field that actually has goal posts. It's pretty exciting.
In honor of our head football coach, Mike Gravier, the Charlatan came up with the idea to make "Biscuits and Gravier" for round one of our tailgate. Being the guy who woke up first this morning, I took it upon myself to make the sausage gravy. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but it turned out pretty darn good. Dad would've been proud. The completed dish was pretty heavy. A biscuit was topped with sausage gravy, which was topped with a smoked sausage, which was topped with more gravy, and finished off with some chopped green onions. It was not for the faint of heart. I can safely say that eating that dish at around 10:30 this morning has held me over until this evening, and I'm just now beginning to feel the pangs of hunger. Like I said, heavy.
Of course, we also had the requisite burgers and brats that one expects to find at a tailgate party. We also created "Ram Horns," which were crescent rolls stuffed with Nutella and sprinkled with cinnamon. And we can't forget the "Ram Sacks," which were Rolos wrapped in sugar cookies. And there were meatballs. And chips. So much food...
Things started out slowly, with only our little gathering of friends partaking in our various food items. Occasionally we would bring over an official from the college or someone that we knew from way back when and insist they try out the Biscuits and Gravier. But eventually, it got a little strange.
Students began showing up. And not just a few of them. And they were just helping themselves to whatever we had lying around. Don't get me wrong, we were more than okay with this. It kind of felt good to feel popular again.
But then we had a couple kids complain about what we had. And they complained about what we weren't offering. These were students that none of us knew who just strolled up, helped themselves to some drinks out of our cooler and started complaining that we had no hot dogs. The Charlatan offered some brats that had just come off the grill. The reply he got was, "I guess I'll just wait around for a bleepin' hamburger." Only he didn't say bleepin'. To add insult to injury, he and his friend never said thank you for the free food we provided, nor did they stay for the game. After they got their food, they walked back toward the college.
We found out that there was probably a pretty big mix up for the kids that came mooching from our tent. The school had apparently set up their mid day meal at the stadium as an effort to entice the students to come to the game. The official school lunch was set up inside the stadium and a lot of them just decided to hit the first tent they came to that seemed to be offering food.
But to not even say thank you? America, I implore you, teach your kids some manners before you send them out into the world to fend for themselves.
The game itself was exciting. The Rams scored the first touchdown of the game. And there's a part of me that would like to say that's how the score remained. Sadly, it didn't work out for Bluefield like we all hoped it would. Our Rams suffered a defeat of 42-28. But I'm proud of our team. They fought hard and didn't let up until the timer hit zero.
I'm looking forward to Homecoming.
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