Here is your blog host and his pops at today's Colgate vs Dartmouth football game. Colgate won easily in the end, but that is the least of this story.
When I was a kid and in high school, Colgate had fairly wide open ticket policies. If you didn't want to sit, you could wander around just outside the game and see the whole thing free. My parents used to simply drive up to the field, with the dog, and watch the game that way, comfy and dry, for free. Things have changed! New stands, bleachers, BARBED wire fences, security all over. Ten bucks for a basic ticket, five to park. If it had always been that way, OK, but it has always been free, you see, so.....
more background. I went to high school in Hamilton, a terrible little school, but I became a Colgate Community Scholar, whereby I could and did enroll in classes up there. My dad went to Colgate, my sister and her husband too, and my grandfather back in the 30s. There is some history there, and we are NOT going to start paying to get into games.
So the guy at the lot wants 5 rude bucks to park, but hey, across the street by the pool is a spot, so chalk one up for us. Then the new fences. You can't get anywhere NEAR the game to stand outside and watch. With barb wire! But we wander. Things are quieter at the north end, and you can see the game if you stand on a sidewalk. Not bad. Then, I notice down at the other end, in the press parking entrance, the little old man checking press passes has momentarily wandered off......so pops and I make our move, we are in the inner fence, and we hide in the pine trees behind the score board. Cool! After awhile, we decide to brazen it out, and sidle on over through the trees to the crowds, and sit amongst the general population.
4 comments:
....and when everybody went to the potty at half time, we made one further move: to the seats in the third row, at the 50 yard line.....
You rebels, you!
The price was right, cm. My dad tried to pretend he was a newspaper reporter, which almost got us into the press entrance. I can't believe we were so devious, but as I say, there is some outrage that these games were once free to the casual spectator.
the sad reality is football is BIG business for many colleges and universities these days. schools like notre dame paved the way for smaller ones, i.e. colgate.
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