W e were on again and off again about driving to Starkville this past weekend to see old friends, eat crawfish and attend a baseball game.
I justified the trip by taking a couple of Masonic chairs, which I referred to as “thrones,” to our cabin in Newton on our way.
I called my cousins and everyone agreed it would be fun to have thrones to sit in and pass judgment on other family members. Sounds kind of warped, doesn’t it? One of the cousins joked that it was okay to judge the McMullans because they liked to joke and have fun. Then they mentioned the Huffs, who, it was said, would just take you off in the woods and shoot you. Glad there are not so many Huffs in the family anymore.
So plans were to leave the house before 7 a.m., stop by Newton, then on to Starkville. In theory that sounded good, but it was closer to 8:00 before we really left.
We dropped the chairs and off we went to visit with old college buddies.
We arrived in time to get some great crawfish and trimmings.
The real purpose of the invitation to the event at MSU was to make a donation, but I knew this beforehand so it did not come as a surprise. The goal is to raise $1.4 million for a new house at State for the Phi Taus. They’ve raised close to $1 million now.
One of my closest friends commented while he was writing his check that he learned more from his fraternity than he did from anything else he did at college. There is a bit of truth to that, and I grinned and thought the same.
We made our way to the new Dudy Noble field, which is really something to behold. I would guess it is one of the nicest facilities, period.
As we were sitting on third base line, I was having flashbacks to the old college days and what was called Left Field Lounge. We had a station wagon in those days that we had cut the top off of with a jig saw and painted it Harvard Red and Old Gold. Now, where the station wagon used to sit there is a building called The Lofts that features two bedroom lofts with balconies that overlook the field. You can get one for a mere $45,000 a season. A little too rich for your blood?
Then try the small lounge box seats around the perimeter of the field. They will accommodate small parties, complete with grills, benches or whatever the owners would like. One of them was decorated with a whole lot of deer antlers. While these boxes are sold out, they are only $2,000 a season plus the cost of tickets and donations to the baseball program. Doesn’t come cheap.
During the weekend for a single night game they have what is called, “The Morning After” for $1,500 a night, but don’t plan on an SEC event because that is not going to happen
In the game we attended the Bulldogs were facing Auburn. The Dogs smoked the Tigers. State started out in control and never let up.
This was my first chance to see Jake Mangum in action. Let me tell you, he is the real stuff and it is great that he has the Simpson County ties through his dad John Mangum’s family. It did not matter where we were, when Jake got up to bat everyone stopped and stared.
We headed back to where we had parked at the bottom of the eighth inning. Our friends stayed in the stands for what seemed like forever and reported that the Dogs ruled when they came up to bat at the end.
I like Nancy’s and my new arrangement that came into play as we drove home. She drives because I am too slow. Sometimes I drive where we are going but she always drives home. I pointed her in the right direction on Highway 25 leaving town and before I knew it we were pulling into Raleigh. My, how time flies when you are asleep.
