Saturday, December 22, 2007

Got 12?

So I'm following this old beat up truck on my way to get my sons haircut and it has A L A B A M A in like 9" letters sprawled accross the back windshield. We stop at a red light and we make eye contact. He seemed like a nice enough guy - mid 50's, scruffy beard, camo hat, harmless - so I look at my son and say "watch this".

I lean over the steering wheel and when he looks back again I hold up 6 fingers in front of me...I'm wearing an AU ball cap, so he immediately gets it. The guy chuckles, pauses for a second or two and flashes 12 fingers (ten, then two) out his window at me...all the while laughing. My son asks, what's that mean...so I explain that UAT has won 12 National Championships and that's there way of saying "take that."

My son then says, "wow, what do you say to that?"

I explain that if I were in person with this trash talk, sign language exchange, you know, face to face, I'd say something like...Several centuries ago the Romans rulled the earth, but you don't hear the Italians playing that card during our current reign of world domination...and that tends to shut it down.

My son thought that was a great comback and encouraged me to pull alongside the guy and let him have it...I thought the moment had passed, so it ended there...but...

I've seen two more "Got 12?" stickers in the last week...on different rigs. It makes me want to preach the Roman message in a bad way.

Anyway...since I only have one reader, are you seeing this dynamic in FloMo?

1 Comments:

Blogger Brent said...

First of all, you have more readers than you think. I've learned that when 250 folks read your blog every day and you only get 1 or 2 comments that most people read but don't comment. Sorta like callers to radio talk shows. Tons more listen than call.

Anyway, in response to your son's first question about what do you say to "12": Hal, I'm embarrassed that you've bought into that myth. You need to check out this so he can learn what to say to that. http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/AU505/96371

By their logic, Auburn could claim 4...maybe 5.

And then, I'd just say that it's been 15 years since they've been relevant on the college football landscape.

And, then, I'd say that "tradition" is what you fall back on when the "now" isn't that great.

What it interesting about this phenomenon in the Dallas area is that UAT and AU have visible alumni followings...but when you live outside the South the banter doesn't have any heat behind it. Like at the mall yesterday, I had a shirt with an AU logo on it and passed by a family of four wearing UAT stuff. The dad saw the logo and rolled his eyes. I just smiled. He was more irritated by my quiet confident happiness than anything else.

I guess having lived through the UAT glory days in the 70's...just knowing that the days of The Bahr are long gone and AU going 11-2 in Iron Bowls since the move to campuses is enough.

Oh, man. Life is good.

7:32 AM

 

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