This Made Me Think

Yesterday was another home game and another
humiliating loss. Thankfully NFL football is more than just the game so I'll pass on my observations from yesterday.

Sunday we had a 4 PM game rather
than the preferred and usual 1 PM start time.

Wreggie's Football Postulate 1: The later
the start time the more alcohol is ingested prior to the game.

We set up early so that we
could watch the 1 PM games in TV and leisurely cook brats and burgers.

At Carolina Panther Games
there is no stadium parking lot. Throughout a radius of the stadium small parking lots normally used by weekday commuters
become small cities. Each parking lot is equipped with two or more porta-jons and one must pay anywhere from $15 to $40 for the right to park here for one game.

This year someone passes out large yellow plastic bags to claim recyclables. Then after a few hours someone may politely ask if they can dig through your bag in search of aluminum.

So gradually the parking lots fill with cars, people, grills, smoke, music, and laughter. Big spreads of food are prepared as if we are the ones about to expend energy in a few hours.

Then about 1 hour before game time the small city begins to disassemble and is packed away. Then 75,000 people descend on the stadium.

Scattered among the three levels are abundant restrooms where men go to eliminate beer. The men's room near my seats has maybe 30 urinals and 4 stalls. All station run about 10 men deep. So at any time there is a big cinder block room with well over 300 men waiting for their turn. There are many rooms like this all over the stadium.

In the bathroom there is an overhead speaker system broadcasting the game with fans of both side yelling for their team. There is a lot of joking and yelling from some that have been over served.

Yesterday not once but twice I saw a small girl, different girl each time in the men's room. They looked to be about 4 years old, maybe younger. They looked kind of horrified at what they were witnessing. They were so small that they went mostly unnoticed. Each was with their father who had to go.

If a guy takes his his little daughter to a game then I guess there is no other alternative if either has to "go" except to walk in the men's room.

I just hope there is no lasting damage to the young ones witnessing the event.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Obviously you are not aware that women have been known to take over the mens room when the line is too long at ours; I look at this as good training for the young lady.

Just so you know, men seem get very scared and quickly leave the area when they see a group of women in the mens room.

Chris said...

I have thought about this since the day Ellery was born.

It pains me to think of taking her into the mens bathroom, so I always try to take her to the family bathroom.
Once when I was changing E's diaper in such room, a toilet flushed, and out walked a mom in her 30's. You can only imagine the look of horror that was on my face. I can't win.

terri said...

4 years old? That's old enough to remember. There will definitely be permanent damage.

Ken said...

You did NOT paint a pretty picture for those little girls. Smelly...YES!

Coffeypot said...

My ex and her girlfriends were at a concert at the old Omni in Atlanta. The ladies room was full as usual so she and her girlfriends went into the men’s room. They all stayed behind the stall doors until all were ready to leave. She said that when they came out there was a gauntlet of men standing there with their peckers in their hand. She, nor her girlfriends don’t intimidate easily and went walking between the men saying stuff like, Nope, too small, too ugly, call me later, get it cut back, poor thing, and stuff like that. I laughed my ass off when she told me about it. I’m just glad I wasn’t in the line. Fragile ego, ya know.