Bodacious Boomer

All right, all right. Most people know I’m kinda strange; and every Superbowl Sunday I prove it. I don’t watch the Superbowl. There I said it.  I’m putting it out there for everyone to know. When I was growing up my parents were big fans of the Houston Oilers. My mom would have me sit on the couch next to her to watch the game and if they made a good play she’d go buck wild slapping my leg to make sure I saw it. (It got to be a joke in the family that no one wanted to sit next to her during a game.)

I remember my dad took me to the Oilers AFC championship game in December 1960. (I think 1960.)  Mom didn’t want to go because rain was predicted. A drunk guy sitting behind us spilled his bourbon all over my back. Then it started to rain. I sat reeking of bourbon, next to my dad while hunkering under an umbrella. My dad sat there in his raincoat and rain hat. He wouldn’t have been caught dead carrying, or God forbid, using an umbrella. (Back in the early 60’s my dad wasn’t the most evolved person when it came to what was manly and what was not.) I begged to go home as the rain pelted us. Usually I could always get my way with my dad; but not that day. He was resolute. We sat and it rained and rained then it rained some more. That afternoon sucked- a lot. A Houston team has never won, or even played in the Superbowl.

I went to the football games in high school because I was part of the drill team. I played a bugle in the Imperial Guard. Our uniforms were heinous- gray jackets with a gray pleated skirt. We wore gray Roman type helmets that had red brooms on the top. What was I thinking?

The year I was a freshman at UT we won the national championship. The city went wild! I remember being carried on stranger’s shoulders down “The Drag” AKA Guadalupe street after the game. (I was smaller then). Anyway, UT football is almost a religion in Texas and when they win the top of the tower on campus is lit up orange. When they win the national championship the whole tower is lit up orange. You can see the tower from 10 miles away. I still watch Longhorn football.

What I don’t understand though is why someone who has absolutely no attachment to either of the cities in the Superbowl would get so wound up about it. It’s beyond me unless it’s just an excuse to get together with friends, eat a lot of junk food and perhaps drink too much. I know the commercials are cute, but I caught those online this morning. Is there something else going on there that I’m just not seeing?