What does it mean to tailgate? Webster defines it as “to hold a tailgate picnic” that maybe true in the Pac-10 or the Big-10, not so here in the valley. With Hurricane Gustav taking dead aim at our coast and showing up to the parade grounds at midnight, holding a picnic was the farthest thing from our minds. Yes you heard me correctly I said midnight, because of the kickoff being moved up we were faced with two options: scrap tailgating for this week OR show up at midnight to get as much tailgating in……..the choice was easy.
Not much you can do at midnight on the parade grounds, except figure out a spot to pee until the union opens up at 7am and drink. So we did. We had tiki torches burning because LSU seems to not cut their grass anymore and we had the generator running pumping out the tunes. For the most part we just sat around and drank and discussed the storm and LSU and football around the country. I guess it wasn’t until around 2 that things got interesting; it seems that two of our crew got bored and went to take a walk around and see if they could pick up drunk chicks leaving the bars. About 30 min. later they walk up with a couch. Not sure where it came from but they brought a couch so that they could sleep on cause they were tired.
By 4am we are good and drunk and decided that now is the perfect time to do a Geaux Show, little did we know how drunk we were. In the middle of the show this truck pulls up and about 5 guys jump out the back and they are just eyeing the couch. So I guess the B*%ch boy of the group nervously walks up and ask us if that was our couch, what happens next is priceless. I say, “Not our couch man, we got out here around midnight and that thing was in our spot. We have been tailgating here since 97 so we just moved it to the side. Why did y’all lose a couch?” His reply, “Yeaah yeah it looks like ours, someone must be playing a joke on us, you mind if we take it”, “SURE” I say, “Please get it out of here.” Then they little guy in all his nervousness APOLOGIZES to us for the inconvenience of having the couch in our way. Personally I think the little dude was scared out of his mind, to walk up on a group of guys sitting in the dark, talking into microphones.
Now I must point out that while this is happening one of the guys that took it is asleep in his car, the other guy has gotten up and walked back over to the tailgate the couch came from to ask them if they had lost a couch. The story he told them was that we were setup over in our spot and there was this couch all alone in the middle of the parade grounds. A cop came up and asked us if it was ours and if it wasn’t he was gonna get someone to come haul it off. SO out of the kindness of our hearts we said it was ours so it would not get hauled away and we set out to find the true owners. Of course they say they lost a couch and he convinces 6 guys to all walk over to our tailgate with him so that they can come carry their couch, the one their friends have just picked up.
After that I gotta be honest the pain pills and beer took over and I don’t recall much, I know we beat Appy St. and then we were without power for 5 days.
While I hate everything being shifted and don’t want another hurricane to hit here for awhile it was kind of fun and would have no problem making that choice all over again!