The Family Story Only a Fan Could Love

Cam Newton photo courtesy of NY Daily News

This story is contributed by our newest reporter, Christy:

 Once a season, my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law,  the twins, and I go to a game together. My sister has twin girls who are now 6 years old. We didn't start this little 'family tradition' until they were two years old. We always went together when my sister and I were kids, but while we were in college and for a while after, we didn't go as a family.   The Kentucky game of 2009 was the first time we did it. 

 My sister was so excited to show the twins Auburn, even though they were still little.  We drove up the morning of, and as usual, stopped in Evergreen at The Smokehouse. We got in the car, and headed on to AU. Hopes were high. AU had a new coach and the team seemed to have a renewed energy. 

It's all downhill from there. It was forecast to be chilly, and it was probably 25 degrees cooler than predicted. It was also raining off and on, and there had been no mention of rain at all. 

 We parked and started to get out of the car when Ella got sick and threw up. We all kind of assumed it was just the car ride. My mom had packed ham sandwiches and stuff, and we were planning to come back to the car- which we normally don't do anymore. On the way to the bookstore and Tiger Walk, Ella got sick again. We were slightly worried.

To make a lot of details into a short story, we got separated (this story goes on and on with us missing each other, and not being able to get together for about an hour)  and as you know, ATT cell service is notoriously bad on game days. Ella was sick again. 

 It was getting closer to game time and getting colder and colder. Finally we were able to get my to my parents. They had gone back to the car and she had brought the sandwiches, but we didn't have time to eat them before we wanted to go into the stadium. 

 We had 3 or 4 bags of toddler paraphernalia and several blankets. We went on in the stadium. We had so much stuff, stadium security didn't even bother with our ham sandwiches. By now, I was starving!!!!!! So my mom handed out the sandwiches. One thing you ought to know is that our tickets are orange zone seats on the 50 yard line. We don't know how much longer we will have them. We pay for them, but we are only able to buy them because my grandfather made a friend years ago...anyway, so there we sit in with rich folks, eating ham sandwiches.

The game started. It was going ok. Ella got sick some more. Melinda finally took her over to first aid, where they gave her some pheneragan. Melinda and Terry decided to go ahead and leave; they wanted to get Ella to bed. 

 So they drove to Montgomery to get our rooms. Emma stayed with us til the end. 

 Most of the game had gone ok, but at the end it deteriorated.  As you know, it did not turn in our favor. We lost the game in the end thanks to some pitiful playing. As we were standing up to leave, Emma threw up ALL OVER my dad. Some stadium folks were VERY nice and tried to help us, getting us towels and such. However, it was on his jacket, down his shirt, on his shoes...it was NOT GOOD! 

 It never once occurred to us to ask for a ride back to the car. We started the long trek back to the car, which took forever. Emma kept  getting sick. My dad was carrying her. I was carrying ALL of the stuff my mom had toted in, including stuff my dad had carried. I had about 4 bags and piles of blankets. I couldn't see at all over the stack of blankets.  I was freezing. I can't remember anymore why mom couldn't carry anything. Meanwhile, Ella slept peacefully with the sleep only phenergan can bring. 

FINALLY we got back to the car. Emma fell asleep immediately. We got to the 'hotel' with my sis and BIL...we got into our room and it was TERRIBLE. We were all so cold and tired, it didn't matter. 

We made our way home on Sunday. It wasn't funny AT ALL at the time, but now it is a hilarious family story. Ella loves to tell when she 'throwed up at the War Eagle game'.  Emma doesn't really remember being sick, but she got sick so many times on the way to the car, I imagine she tried to shut it out. Ella will say, 'I throwed up at the War Eagle game. I throwed up EVERYWHERE!' So, that is the story of the nightmare that was our trip to that game. I can't do it justice. Ella's words sum it up best. 

The next year, we got to go to the Arky game together, and we had a blast. Got to shake Cam's hand when he was not yet a SUPERSTAR- Emma and Ella fell in love. They love to watch him on the Panthers now and say 'There's Cam Nooooooooo-tun!!' 

WAR EAGLE!