Sometime back in September, my mother called to tell me that my cousin, an avid lifelong Washington Redskins football fan, had an extra ticket to the Redskins-Eagles game.. In honor of my new found fandom excitement, she thought I might like to go, even though I had never ever expressed any interest in football. In fact, my attitude about football was that it was too difficult to follow. No matter how many times people explained to me what a 'down' was, or who did what, I couldn't grasp it, and would soon lose interest.
But, in the spirit of "I'll try anything once" and "It's always fun when you go with someone who is an enthusiast" I said 'sure!"
Game day:
My cousin Barbara is the consummate hostess, and knows how to prepare for any party. She has done tailgating parties so much that all the paraphernalia is ready to go: chairs, tables, serving utensils, silverware, Redskins napkins, the works. And for this party, she prepared a banquet of chicken, salads,humous, croissants, cupcakes, drinks, chips, strawberries. All for 3 people. We packed up the car at 3:00 for the 8:30 p.m. game. Driving down I 270 which is north west of Washington, we immediately hit bumper to bumper traffic.All 90,000 fans plus rush hour traffic seemed to be on the road. There was some anxiety that we wouldn't get a good parking spot, but Barbara had a pass directly into the best parking 40 feet from the entrance to the stadium
And what a stadium-when you approach, it looks like the spaceship in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The top is ringed with restaurants lights and the sign FEDEX is brightly light in orange and green. Circling the stadium are the parking lots filled up with taligaters so it looks from afar like a tribal gathering (and indeed it is). Walking around the parking lot I spied beanbag toss games, Redskins tents, and of course, lots of beer. I was surprised how many green and white shirts I saw-intermingled with the red and gold.
Once we had set up our table, we were joined by several avid Eagles fans, clients of Barbara's brother. There was some haggling back and forth, but for the most part, everyone seemed to be trading jibes in a friendly sort of way. Much talk about the just announced 78 million dollar contract for Donovan McNabb. Much hand wringing about whether Michael Vick should be forgiven for his dog fighting (for which he did time in jail). In the end, after friendly handshakes, and we were off to the game.
There are three levels in the stadium. Our seats were on the 40 yard line in the first level. Barbara sat to my right and her friend, Gail to my left. Behind me was a very vocal Eagles fan, there with his Redskins wife. In front was a cute couple with matching black sweatshirts-hers said "Team Adam", his said "Team (what ever her name was).
To our right in front, another Eagles fan. On the field, the Redskins marching band. AS soon as they started playing the fight song, I chimed in. Hail to the Redskins...Remember, I grew up with that song, during the glory days.
