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Stoddard Alumni Do It Best!
Published on 25/09/06
by John Phillips
Sorry for the delay in posts, but there is reason, so just know that I’m doing something important and productive if not I’m blogging on this site……..It’s not laziness. Well actually, yesterday was laziness/recovery because of the events that went down this weekend. So moving right along, it was that time a year where the Stoddard Alumni had rally up and do it like we used to. And it was very good times.
So after work Friday, I went to go eat with momma Philly and my sister in Canton, then scrambled back home (R.O.) to meet up with Batio so that we could boogie on up to State for the big weekend. Unforunately, we didn’t get in until around 10. Now, usually, I don’t care about arriving into town late, but on a weekend like this where tons of people are going to be there and at the bars, it really helps to get somewhere early to beat the lines. This wasn’t the case, and the night ended up being a flop because 1.) it was pouring rain out, and 2.) we arrived too late and lines were absolutely ridiculous. Now yes, I wanted to go out, however, I’m quite past the days where I will wait in line at least at hour to get in……negative!
So I ended up staying in and chillin with Izzo and his girlfriend. Early Saturday morning, I woke up for a breakfast meeting to sign some papers, and after breakfast, I was all kinds of geeked and ready to get it done. I went over to Steve & Barrys to get myself and Kell some hot alumni t-shirts. I can’t even put into words how glad I am to be a Spartan Alum. But anyways, I met up with Bill, Tran, and Paulie D at the QD so that we could pick up some juice. We went back to Izzo’s to organize, and then we hot-footed it to meet up with the rest of the Stoddard Alumni.
So we arrive there, and damn was it good to see everyone. It had been like a year since I’ve seen the guys from 129 so when we saw them it almost instantly brought up some of the fun memories. So we had to spend a bit of time catching up, shooting the shit and whatnot, and overall, it seems to me that everyone’s life is going very well, and that their lives were well on the way to happiness. That’s always good to hear, and you never want to hear that someone is doing bad. So we hung out there for awhile and boozed it up like we did in the good old days.
After a while, we decided to see stroll on over to the tennis courts (our tailgate was at Old Horticulture) to see who was around. Honestly, it was nothing really special to me. Because of the fact that I’m not in college anymore, I don’t feel that our tailgate needs to be in the center of the action because I came to tailgate to party with the people that I shared the finest days of college with. So in no way did I feel like I was going to miss something at the courts, however, we still went to briefly check it out and take a brisk walk through. Apparently Dano was there, but unfortunately I didn’t see him, which was kinda lame cause I haven’t seen/talked to him in so long.
There were more people than I thought were going to be at the tennis courts, but it still will never compare to the days when tailgate wasn’t tainted by the stuck up big wigs at MSU. Never the less, it was still cool to see tons of Spartans partying in a place other than the bar. But after our stroll near the courts, we headed on back to Old Horti for some more action. One of the highlights had to have been Double O’s girl trying to call out Team Baller (Stoddard flip-cup league champs!). I didn’t take that so well, therefore I felt like that was a challenge….
So we set up some flip cup, and because there were alot of people there, we couldn’t exactly have just Team Baller again the challengers, so a bunch of other people hopped in the play. Never the less, Team Baller and some other randoms held it down, not losing a round. For some reason, our squad always gets underestimated until we whipping ass, and then the excuses come out……but that’s not here nor there.
Of course with every tailgate in which he is there, Uncle William has to have everyone’s attention for the traditional tailgate speech, or, the Uncle William Speech. As always, he came with another good one! I really wish I had a damn video camera or some way to have recorded it, because I definitely would have. A still camera just doesn’t capture enough of the moment when Uncle William gets in front of everyone. Oh well, maybe next year.
Now, tailgating from 1 until gametime (8pm) sounds like a long time, but it went by really fast. A little before 8 we started to make our way to the bar to watch what we had been waiting for all day, to butt heads with Notre Dame. Our location was Harpers, and luckily we got a good table to watch the game. I really don’t feel like going in depth about the frustrations that went on in that game, but I have one question. How in the hell do we lose a game where we dominated for 3.5 quarters. If this was a Sound Session, you would probably hear alot of swearing right now, but I will contain myself.
So we only stayed at Harpers for a few minutes after the game, because after that much drinking all day, it starts to wear on you, especially when you can’t even celebrate a Spartan victory. Oh well, there’s always next year. We just about called it a wrap after that though. We went to Izzo’s for a minute, and then to Miller’s place to wind down the night.
All-in-all, it was a fun ass weekend. It was everything I thought it was going to be, and it was damn good to see the Stoddard Alum at it again, just like we used to do. I have to admit that my camera performace was not good. I didn’t take nearly as many pics as I wanted to.
Batio was mentioning that, even if it wasn’t tailgate, we should try and plan at least a couple times a year where we all get together somewhere. Sounds like a good idea to me, so we’ll see. So to all that made it, I hope you had fun, because I definitely did. No one does it like the Stoddard Alum!
peace