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Musings on a 3 year old's first "real" Husky Game
YellowSnow
Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 33,938
Author’s Note: Please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors and/or poor style; this piece was not written by a technically gifted writer.
Perhaps the most important rite of passage for an aspiring, young Dawg fan, is his/her first home game in iconic Husky Stadium. This past Saturday’s game against former FCS powerhouse, The University of Montana Grizzlies, provided an ideal opportunity to take 3 year old Little Snow, out to a ball game. Say want you want about 5PM kick-offs for FCS paycheck games, but they work well for small children (i.e., post nap start time and you can depart at half time and be home for 8pm bed time). All week leading up to Saturday, Little Snow was chomping at the bit for a “real” Husky game, not like the “practice” football games I took him to in the Spring and Fall. I didn’t have the heart to tell him this was only a practice game as well. Still, I couldn’t but feel a twinge of jealousy towards the spoiled, little shit. After all, my daddy didn’t take me to my first Husky game until my senior year of high school on a UW recruiting (LOL) visit; my first in-person football experiences were shitty, mid 1980’s Chargers dud fests in half empty Jack Murphy Stadium. Comparatively, my first exposure to viewing Husky athletes, came from watching gigantic, Viking descendent oarsmen with shaved heads race from along the shores of Mission Bay at The San Diego Crew Classic.
Benefiting from the long gait which comes from being in the 150th percentile of height for his age, Little Snow made relatively short work of the 1.3 mile hike from the plentiful free parking of Southeast Wallingford, down along the Burke Gillman Trail, and onward to the Greatest Setting in College Football. I suggested to Little Snow we venture over to the Zone for a moment so he could see the other little kids frolicking about and chucking youth sized footballs. I was also secretly hoping to encounter my ex’s father, a Montana uber booster, amongst the Grizz faithful to talk a little shit. It’s amazing, however, the instincts possessed by small children, and my son knowing that the Zones sucks, demanded that we head straight to our seats to watch pre-game warmup in true @CokeGreaterThanPepsi fashion. Little Snow as a force of habit started running for the good seats in the lower bowl where we typically sit for practices before I could remind him that our vantage point was in the Northside upper deck. He does not yet comprehend our living in poverty due to Seattle’s insanely high cost of living.
Note to Husky Fans attending games with small children: Don’t even think about trying to get tiny, 6 oz, children’s water bottle past the diligent security team of Staff Pro. Furthermore, they do not appreciate snarky comments from fans about one trying to smuggle in a 3 year old’s ration of vodka.
As Little Snow chomped away at a $6.00 pretzel with government cheese sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to see Husky Stadium filling in nicely as kick off approached. Mind you there we still plenty of empty seats in the usual places, but the not the 20,000 or so you would have seen for an early season cupcake in the Gilby-Ty-Sark era; 2016 is clearly paying dividends in terms of more butts in seats. I suspect it is the pomp and circumstance of college football that appeals most to the wee sports fan. The was certainly true of Little Snow as he proudly stood for the Star Spangled Banner and then giddily cheered the team running out of the tunnel, even asking me if there was a fire given all the Purple Haze (smoke). From there most of Little Snow’s attention was focused on waiving Daddy’s hat kick-offs and trying to spot Dub’s on the sideline; the X’s and O’s part or the experience doesn’t appeal as much to the 3 year old mind. By the time route was on at 28-7 and 5:00 minutes left in 2nd Quarter, pre-school age boredom had set in and it was time to have a potty break before the half time rush. Showing the telltale signs of bed time nearing, we opted to depart Husky Stadium and hump it back to Wallingford for a Dick’s cheeseburger and vanilla milkshake. Bob Rondeau’s farewell tour kept us company for the quick drive home.
After Little Snow went down for his nightly slumber, I gave myself a little pat on the back for accomplishing one of the most important duties of a father, which is to impart on the child that which is cool in life. I closed out the night sipping on 10 year old Eagle Rare bourbon whilst watching USC put away Stanford and coming to grips with the fact that the season is over before it even started.
Perhaps the most important rite of passage for an aspiring, young Dawg fan, is his/her first home game in iconic Husky Stadium. This past Saturday’s game against former FCS powerhouse, The University of Montana Grizzlies, provided an ideal opportunity to take 3 year old Little Snow, out to a ball game. Say want you want about 5PM kick-offs for FCS paycheck games, but they work well for small children (i.e., post nap start time and you can depart at half time and be home for 8pm bed time). All week leading up to Saturday, Little Snow was chomping at the bit for a “real” Husky game, not like the “practice” football games I took him to in the Spring and Fall. I didn’t have the heart to tell him this was only a practice game as well. Still, I couldn’t but feel a twinge of jealousy towards the spoiled, little shit. After all, my daddy didn’t take me to my first Husky game until my senior year of high school on a UW recruiting (LOL) visit; my first in-person football experiences were shitty, mid 1980’s Chargers dud fests in half empty Jack Murphy Stadium. Comparatively, my first exposure to viewing Husky athletes, came from watching gigantic, Viking descendent oarsmen with shaved heads race from along the shores of Mission Bay at The San Diego Crew Classic.
Benefiting from the long gait which comes from being in the 150th percentile of height for his age, Little Snow made relatively short work of the 1.3 mile hike from the plentiful free parking of Southeast Wallingford, down along the Burke Gillman Trail, and onward to the Greatest Setting in College Football. I suggested to Little Snow we venture over to the Zone for a moment so he could see the other little kids frolicking about and chucking youth sized footballs. I was also secretly hoping to encounter my ex’s father, a Montana uber booster, amongst the Grizz faithful to talk a little shit. It’s amazing, however, the instincts possessed by small children, and my son knowing that the Zones sucks, demanded that we head straight to our seats to watch pre-game warmup in true @CokeGreaterThanPepsi fashion. Little Snow as a force of habit started running for the good seats in the lower bowl where we typically sit for practices before I could remind him that our vantage point was in the Northside upper deck. He does not yet comprehend our living in poverty due to Seattle’s insanely high cost of living.
Note to Husky Fans attending games with small children: Don’t even think about trying to get tiny, 6 oz, children’s water bottle past the diligent security team of Staff Pro. Furthermore, they do not appreciate snarky comments from fans about one trying to smuggle in a 3 year old’s ration of vodka.
As Little Snow chomped away at a $6.00 pretzel with government cheese sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to see Husky Stadium filling in nicely as kick off approached. Mind you there we still plenty of empty seats in the usual places, but the not the 20,000 or so you would have seen for an early season cupcake in the Gilby-Ty-Sark era; 2016 is clearly paying dividends in terms of more butts in seats. I suspect it is the pomp and circumstance of college football that appeals most to the wee sports fan. The was certainly true of Little Snow as he proudly stood for the Star Spangled Banner and then giddily cheered the team running out of the tunnel, even asking me if there was a fire given all the Purple Haze (smoke). From there most of Little Snow’s attention was focused on waiving Daddy’s hat kick-offs and trying to spot Dub’s on the sideline; the X’s and O’s part or the experience doesn’t appeal as much to the 3 year old mind. By the time route was on at 28-7 and 5:00 minutes left in 2nd Quarter, pre-school age boredom had set in and it was time to have a potty break before the half time rush. Showing the telltale signs of bed time nearing, we opted to depart Husky Stadium and hump it back to Wallingford for a Dick’s cheeseburger and vanilla milkshake. Bob Rondeau’s farewell tour kept us company for the quick drive home.
After Little Snow went down for his nightly slumber, I gave myself a little pat on the back for accomplishing one of the most important duties of a father, which is to impart on the child that which is cool in life. I closed out the night sipping on 10 year old Eagle Rare bourbon whilst watching USC put away Stanford and coming to grips with the fact that the season is over before it even started.
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p.s. Sounds like you need smuggling tips, so here goes...a hip flask fits nicely inside a folded up clean diaper. Roll up water bottles tightly inside a stadium blanket. Edibles go inside the Animal Crackers box. Weapons you keep on your person though. Be warned though it was a challenge to not have Nephew_de_Jour pull his tiny set of brass knuckles out of the kangaroo pocket of UW hoodie while going through security, so be vigilant with the little ones.
during bedtime wrestling.