Papa got a surprise call on Friday. It was the President's office saying they had extra tickets to Saturday's Clemson game against Presbyterian College. Any chance we wanted two seats to the game?
So we called in (another) huge favor to the Pennas, dumped Henry and June on them, and headed on to campus for the game! We meant to do some tailgating, but couldn't find our friends among the 100,000 of our other friends on campus for the game. We did eventually find the party our neighbor's department was hosting at the basketball arena and got to enjoy a full catered meal in the air conditioning. There I was cuddled by an array of parents in town for parents' week while mama ate pimento and cheese sandwiches (seriously, even the food here is orange!).
Good thing the weather has cooled down (it was only in the very high 80s). Seriously, has no one told South Carolina summer is over? But you know how I like to be warm. So I slept most of the time while mama and papa tried to keep me out of the sun. Check out my cute Tiger shirt. One of mama's friends from the gym made it for me.
I wanted to crowd surf, but papa said no and stopped mama at the last minute.
These were pretty good seats. Thanks, President Barker. We didn't get any good pictures, but down here ladies do not wear just anything to the game. Apparently, somewhere there's a catalog full of orange and purple party dresses and coordinating accessories that women are expected to wear to the game. All with perfect hair and fancy makeup. Didn't anyone tell mama about this? She showed up wearing no makeup, a t-shirt, and a HAT! No matter how long we live down here, she'll always be that sweaty Midwesterner.
It was a good game and we had about 8,000 opportunities to practice the "C-L-E-M-S-O-N" because they play it after every first down and the full fight song after every touchdown. and Presbyterian College is really not good at all. I think someone said it's been 17 games since their last win. It was 21-0 before the first quarter was finished.
After a while, we started feeling bad for the Blue Hose (and their unfortunate choice of mascot) and started silently cheering for them and hoping they didn't fumble the kickoff return again.
We ended up leaving at the beginning of the 4th quarter when the score was 52-7 and they were recruiting fans to play. It was a nice quiet walk across campus and we beat the crowds out and picked up pizza for supper.
Having whet our whistle on some great college ball, we were all ready for some real football on Sunday. Don't we all look good in our Bengals gear? Too bad no one told the Bengals the season started... Maybe next week.
