2008 Woodie Awards
In the shadow of Lambeau
The Fat Dude goes tailgaiting with his new sidekick, Brat Wonder
Justin Lyman and Corey Kempf
Issue date: 10/7/04 Section: Features
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So my trusty sidekick Brat Wonder and I trekked all the way up to Green Bay. The city is nothing like what I expected. I kind of expected it to be a little less suburbia and a little more city-like. So as we entered what seemed like suburbia from Hell, ok, maybe not Hell, but everything seemed way too planned out and "perfect."
We arrived to where we decided to stake our claim right next to Pizza Hut on Lombardi Avenue. It was the cheapest parking we could find, and since we are poor college students, we paid in ones...and quarters. The place we parked was at some kind of car dealership. It was awesome how they did not block anyone in, which we were concerned about from the beginning of the journey.
We were greeted by a friendly lady who gladly took our money and her husband directed us where to park. Where we promptly went out and searched for the illusive tailgaters... yeah that didn't take long. There were some parked just down the lot from us. But we decided to head towards the conglomeration of people that took bus tours up to Lambeau Field.
We crossed a couple of streets and approached a row of grills. We were met by an older gentleman who was up just for the game and had just started to heat some onions that had been marinating in butter... because no one in Wisconsin uses margarine. He explained to us he had been coming up for about one game a year. "We've got season tickets for twenty some years now," he explained to us. This year the game was against the New York Giants. After our official conversation he offered us some frosty beverages from his cooler. We, unfortunately had to decline because we were there on business. The fun will have to wait for another tailgating trip, perhaps when it is snowing so we can enjoy the heating of things whilst being unusually cold.
Later on we decided to make our way to the Holy Grail of football stadiums... Lambeau Field. On our way, we were accosted by both the campaign workers of Dubya and Kerry. The Kerry campaign workers were very subdued and just passing out literature while a small band of Bush supporters decided to scream at them "Four more years!" That was answered by a small contingent yelling "Four more wars." I never knew football could be so political.
"Holy Aim 'n Flame, Fat Dude!"
Lambeau Field, as Fat Dude said, is the Holy Grail of football stadiums, and the tradition is even holier. I mean, we ran into the Pope for crying out loud!
To prepare, we needed to get supplies. Now for a meal at a restaurant, you'll be paying at least $20 for two people, at least for most of the restaurants Fat Dude usually reviews. We, and by "we" I mean "I," spent a grand total of $21.73 at Wal-Mart.
Not only was the tax included in that total, but also a very small grill ($5.87), an Aim 'n Flame outdoor lighter ($2.94), and tongs ($0.94) were also included. As for the food, we snatched up two six-packs of stadium style Johnsonville brats, two six-packs of Holsum brat buns (pre-cut too luckily), Great Value ketchup, and Great Value pickle slices. The food only cost $11.49. Fat Dude and I only ate one pack of both the brats and buns, so if you remove the packs we didn't eat from the total, we spent $6.67 for two people, and we were full! Oh, and I forgot to mention the Mountain Dew and Pepsi 12-packs and the Ruffles potato chips, for which we intuitively used Muskie Money to drop on those gems.
You really can't go wrong with tailgating. Of the people we met, every one of them said that they tailgate because of the atmosphere and fan camaraderie. Well, apparently the Bush and Kerry people didn't get that camaraderie memo, but forget about politics.
Sundays were set aside for football and religion, and if you're like me, football is your religion. Besides, it's always a little interesting to see inebriated people at 11 in the morning.
We did run into some problems with wind, but we did get the grill hot enough to cook the brats to juicy goodness.
As far as must haves go for tailgating, the five dollar grill is imperative, especially for college students. When you buy this for the first time, it comes with a charcoal bag that you can light, thus negating the need for charcoal and lighter fluid.
We also learned that we were not alone in our tailgating trip to Green Bay. Turns out there are plenty of other people that just go and tailgate just for the fun. And for the die-hard tailgaters, we also learned that they even hold "The World's Best Tailgater" contest at each home game.
It's just one more reason to go and enjoy the fun, drunk or sober, whether you have tickets or not.
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