Just about kickoff…just about ticked off
I sold, paid for or had cause to have others pay for a couple of thousand dollars worth of ducks for my school. It’s a fund-raiser for the Education Foundation…there will be a duck race and some lucky kid will get a college education and another will get a laptop and another will get theme park tickets.
It is a dandy fund-raiser.
I got tickets for a bunch of kis who particularly deserve a college education but aren’t likely to be traded to families who can provide them. Because of this, I visited several classrooms picking up ticket stubs.
I went to one room, picked up tickets and was about to leave when the teacher screeched “what are you doing wearing THAT?” And then she made a hissing noise of disgust. I was wearing a Tennessee necktie. She was wearing orange and blue flip flops and a Gators T-shirt.
Now let us forget for a moment that if anybody has any right to hiss in disgust at anyone, it would be at the late-career, late 50something woman who thought it was good role modeling to wear flip-flops and a T-shirt to school, no matter what the colors. But that’s another impossible battle.
When she made the noise, she actually took her flip flop off and waved it at me like it was some kind of talisman to ward off the devilment of someone not thinking the way she does. I smiled, tried to make light of it and pointed at the shoes and said “that’s sick.”
She responded by saying “we’re gonna stomp you tomorrow…we are going to just stomp you.”
I thanked her for the comment and told her that I had never told anybody my team was going to stomp theirs BEFORE a game. I added, in a lecturely way, like I was teaching 9-year-olds the Just Say No to Drugs curriculum: “Consider the lesson in sportsmanship that you are teaching these children. If you have a big advantage on someone, it is okay to make them feel bad about it. Is that what you are saying?”
I thought she would laugh. Her answer startled me. She said “it is when you’ve got a Tim Tebow and you’re a GATOR!!”
I am sure we have people just like that up in Tennessee. It’s one of the good things about being away from where you came from…you don’t see how the people who say they are on YOUR team act.
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