Razorbacks...carnival?

As you all know I’m a diehard Razorback fan. I love the Arkansas Razorbacks even if times are tough this season on the gridiron.

For all of you who do not know what gridiron is it is a football field. It’s a sports term.

This weekend I had the opportunity to witness the Hogs against their former coach Houston Nutt and the Ole Miss Rebels. Again for those of you who don’t know Ole Miss is the University of Mississippi.

My nephew Jeffrey invited me to travel with his wife Kristy, and two children, Tyler and Madison, to Fayetteville and stay at Kristy’s parent’s home. I would have left Friday after work and come back Sunday morning.

Jeffrey has become a Razorback fan in the last 10 years after attending Harding in Searcy, Ar., and marrying Kristy, whose dad is probably a bigger Razorback fan than me. Jeffrey has season tickets to the home games and travels back and forth to Fayetteville every couple of weeks.

I was excited to be invited with them this weekend. I’ve only been to Razorback Stadium a few times the last being in August of ’04 when Rhonda and I were on our way home from Branson, Mo., and stopped in Fayetteville. Rhonda and I actually walked out onto the playing field, took pictures, and left before we got in trouble.

All week I was picturing going and sitting among 72,000 other Hog fans doing the Hog Call – Whooooooooooooooooo Pig Soooooooie! But I was also picturing leaving Rhonda alone and having to help run the annual Crayon Campus fall carnival.

For years I’ve been the cook. I cook the hot dogs and sausages on a stick. No one else but me works the grill.

I couldn’t go off and leave Rhonda to work it without me. She needed me more than the Razorbacks did. And I love cooking all the dogs and sausages and didn’t want to miss it.

I admit it took me three days to make it official but I knew all along I wasn’t going to the game. Besides I didn’t want to see them lose again. I had never seen them lose in person until last Jan. 1 when Missouri ripped them in the Cotton Bowl, 38-7. Up until then I was something like 12 or 13-0 when going to a Razorback game.

So I thanked Jeffrey for the invite, earned big time brownie points with Rhonda and made the best hot dogs and sausages on the stick one more time. It was well worth it.

By the way I didn’t miss the game – I watched a lot of it on ESPN360 via the internet. And they lost, 23-21, to the Rebels after making a valiant comeback in the final minute.