Old People and Football, Baby -- That's How We Do!

Roaring 20's

  I decided that while working on my 30/30 list, I would fill in the gaps with stories of the shenanigans from the past decade of my life.  I have acquired quite a collection of these little gems over the years through dating, traveling, an absolutely hilarious group of friends, a family that has their roots in humor, and personal endeavor epic fails....Since the statute of limitations for any judgement of these stories is officially over on December 2 (in my mind) I thought it would be okay to go ahead and put them out there.  So enjoy these throwback snippets.....

  I went to Texas Christian University during undergrad (GO FROGS).  With TCU homecoming this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to share an experience from one of the first few football games I went to.  I transferred to TCU from University of Alabama and fell into a group that was crazy, spontaneous, and full of great wit and humor.  I couldn't have hoped for better friends.  I was meeting them at the TCU football game one Saturday (have no idea who we played -- but I'm sure we won) and was running late.  Apparently choosing between several similar purple articles of clothing is a difficult decision making process.  By the time I got to the game, they were already sitting in the student section -- which let's be honest, that's like searching for Waldo on the last page of the book where all the people are Waldos and you have to find the only one that has the complete Waldo outfit (still never found him, haunts me to this day).

 

  I walked into the stadium and started heading up the stairs to our usual section.  I was holding onto the railing of the stairs while crowd surfing the sea of purple -- not paying attention to anything but the people in the stands.  All of a sudden, that rail gave way and I almost completely fell over.  I looked down in my hand, expecting to see the rail there, except it was a carved wooden stick.  I was completely confused at this stage, glanced at the bottom of the "stick" and saw a small, rubber stop.  At this point, with the same face you had after you tried to analyze the movie Inception, I looked up and met the glaring eyes of a man -- a very, very old man -- about 80 give or take?   The light bulb went off as I realized instead of the stair rail, I had grabbed this old man's cane out from under him.  Literally jerked it out from under him.  And I'd like to point out for those questioning minds, I was in fact completely sober.  I immediately started apologizing and tried to explain to him what happened (still holding his cane at this point), but that furrowed brow and wrinkled old face offered no forgiveness.  I single-handedly reinforced and confirmed the "kids these days" stereotype to older generations everywhere.  As I walked off, cane returned and still apologizing, he never stopped staring at me with that look of utter disdain and disapproval.  I'm sure I ruined his TCU grandparents weekend or something......I felt like the worst person ever!

In reality, he was much angrier and without a cane (obviously)...

  Of course I told my friends what happened when I finally found them in the stands.  They all died laughing.  I thought it was a funny story but would blow over.  But to this day, if we are in a group and there are some new people there, my friends (mainly just one...cough....LEVY) will tell these strangers who don't know me at all that I once took a cane from an old man, laughed in his face, then threw the cane down the stairs as he cried.  And while that is funny because we all know it's a joke, you can tell the new people aren't quite sure what to believe and each time they look at me, it's with questioning eyes.  Makes for a comical story though and we had some good laughs about it through the years.  This weekend if I go to the game, I will make sure that I don't repeat history.... 

Disclaimer:  no old people were injured in the making of this story.....