We passed through the turnstiles, and the man ripped our tickets with scarcely a glance at them. The security guards didn't even notice us as we slid by them into the crowd of people. Apparently, the tickets, whether legitimate or not, were good enough. Our seats were in Section 238, but of course, none of us had any idea where that was. We walked and walked until we got close to the section, and I noticed we were still on the lower level. We looked out one of the exits, and we noticed were directly behind one of the end zones. Wow, I thought, we'll be in the second level, behind the end zone. The sign for 238 appeared, and pointed down. Down towards the field.

Row 13, said the tickets, so we kept going down. And down. And down. Until we stopped, at row 13, located directly behind the Temple end zone, where 22 men in football uniforms were currently lined up at the 3-yard-line. And there was hardly anyone between us and the field. And to make matters better, there was a little program directly under my seat.

Soon, Virginia Tech began beating up on Temple, and we amused ourselves by speculating as to the criteria the turnstile men used to direct the fans to their seats. "More teeth than fingers? Must be a Temple fan. Right this way. What's that? You say you've eaten squirrel entrails? Over here, with the Hokie fans." All of a sudden, Virginia Tech scored a touchdown at our end, and the PAT attempt sailed over the net and landed in the crowd, about fifty feet away from us. Maybe we could get out of this game with a football, we thought! But that was when the first quarter ended, and Temple took over our end, until the 4th quarter. There were no kicks for quite some time.

The most interesting moment, by far, was when the VT kicker started practicing at our end at halftime, and a few of his footballs sailed into the stands. A heavyset black woman caught one on the fly, and began celebrating loudly - but when the kicker stopped, he pointed into the stands and summoned a security guard. Suddenly the section was alive with action. One football was returned quickly, by a middle-aged businessman, but the woman - who was seated three rows behind us - had mysteriously lost hers. "Man, I don't know what happened! Somebody must've took it right outta my bag!"

Every bag in the section was then searched, until the culprit was caught. In a shock to everyone, he was sitting next to her. I have a picture of her angry protests. The guards threw the ball back down to the field, and the friendly Philadelphia crowd showed their undying appreciation by screaming curse words and making obscene gestures. I also have a picture of the obscene gestures. This was inadvertent.

I believe the final score was Virginia Tech 62, Temple 7. We were in a crowd of Hokie fans as we walked out to the parking lot, and I discussed how easy it was to root for a team that was undefeated, and how many more Virginia Tech fans there seemed to be, when compared to three years ago. Their mouths were too full of pork rinds to reply.

-TO BE CONTINUED- 

Part Nineteen

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |