For the first game since the mid-seventies, I sat in a new section in Beaver Stadium. Last year, in their infinite wisdom, the powers-that-be at Penn State decided to move the student section fully into the south end zone, necessitating relocating the only seats I have ever sat in for football games. Cue the violins for my pity party.
But you must realize that I am not a creature of change. Oh, I change my clothes daily. Mostly. I might wear a shirt two days in a row if it passes the sniff test. I wear clean underwear each day, unless it is game day and it’s my lucky pair and my team is winning. But you really don’t want to read about that.
I don’t like change. I don’t even like it at the grocery store–I hate the coins jingling in my pocket, and just what am I supposed to do with them when I get home?
So it was with considerable trepidation that I entered Beaver Stadium this past Saturday.
In years past, my parking spot was about six rows from the stadium. We entered Gate B and rode the escalator up to the next level. Our seats were four rows down, and about 10 seats in the row. For my 75 year-old parents who often accompany me, everything was perfect.
But now, my seats are approximately the exact opposite side of the stadium, and a few rows lower. Since we had to walk halfway around the stadium either way, we went in the same gate as before and took the escalator. That saved some climbing. But now, instead of being four rows away, we are the length of the stadium and closer to 16 rows down.
Lousy cell phone picture of our new view of the stadium.
Hard to tell from the photo, but the sun is out. Damn it, Jim, I’m just a doctor. And it’s a phone! Not a camera. You can make out most of the details.
I felt like Moses wandering through the desert as we circled our way around from the southwest corner of the stadium to the northeast corner. But there was no manna from Heaven, only nachos–and you had to pay for them. The crowd wasn’t too bad–after all, we were only playing Indiana State and they barely have a football team–so I didn’t need a staff to part the sea of fans streaming before us. We actually had to go past our section and circle back since you couldn’t get there from here.
Once we got there, though, things weren’t that bad. I have eight seats, four on the aisle in adjacent rows. Before, we always had to climb over people to get to our seats. Now, people climb over us. It’s kind of inconvenient, particularly when someone else’s bladder or stomach is crawling over you during a really exciting play on the field, but for now the plusses and minuses equal out.
The view is about the same we had before (about 10 rows lower) but it will take some getting used to since everything is reversed–it’s like watching a game in bizarro world. During pre-game, the band is marching toward us, not away from us. The home team isn’t warming up below us–the away team is on this side of the field. We were in the shade, and for this game, that was great. We saw a couple of folks being taken out on stretchers, presumably because of heat stroke or related problems. For those rainy games, we are now protected from the elements by the north upper deck. Another plus.
All in all, I guess the new seats are okay.
But I ‘d rather be back were we were, sunburn or rain fall notwithstanding.
But that’s me. I don’t like to change. And since Penn State won the first game, I can’t wash my lucky underwear for another week at least.
Don’t worry, though. We have to play Alabama next week. I’ll probably be washing the loss out of them next Sunday.
I just won’t be washing them in TIDE.
theeyelife 