Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 30, 2009
Are We There Yet?
An Arlington wonder
Jay Edwards
It’s always a great trip when you have a tour guide with lots of local knowledge. That was the case when a big group made up of my wife’s siblings and their spouses headed to the new Cowboy Stadium in Arlington to see the Razorbacks play the Aggies. One of Kathy’s brothers, Bill Althoff, is a long-time resident of the Dallas area, specifically Irving. Bill has lived there so long that he has retired from the high school principal’s job he held for many years. These days he plays a lot of golf and travels to Seattle to visit his son and grandson and to Chicago to visit his daughter.
But the weekend of the big game he was a tour guide, and if he ever wants to go back to the work force, that may be his calling.
After taking the guys out to his home course for some pre-game contact golf, he showed up at our hotel at 4 in the afternoon to get us to the ninth wonder of the world in plenty of time.
It was an easy drive and when we pulled into our designated parking lot we turned up the volume on our Razorback fight song CD, which the Hog half of the crowd seemed to appreciate.
The stadium appeared and looked like the giant stalled out spaceship hanging over Johannesburg in “District Nine.” To say it was imposing doesn’t come close, and the grey, wet day made it even more so.
As the rain began to lightly fall we made our way toward the entrance. There was a large screen TV just outside that was showing some Arkansas-A&M clips from the old SWC days. It fired me up to again see Teddy Barnes make his touchdown catch just before the half, back in 1974.
Just inside the 3,000,000 square foot stadium I could immediately see part of one of the giant LED displays over the field, and was drawn in that direction. The stadium’s openness reminded me of a massive museum, airport and theme park combined.
We were inside now, and thus protected from the elements, but it is so open I felt like I had to still be beneath the sky.
The center-hung LED display is the world’s largest: 72’ high by 160’ wide - equaling 11,520 square feet per side or 23,040 square feet of sideline displays. It would take 4,920 52-inch flat panel TVs to equal the size. The video board uses 30 million light bulbs.
We began our walk up to the top, where our $85 “cheap seats” were located. Why we walked up the four flights is still unknown, as there are escalators that will do all the work for you. Finally at the pinnacle and noticeably out of breath we headed over to a concession stand for some beer. The price per longneck is $8, and I decided I might as well upgrade to the $14 margarita. Also offered at that stand were chicken quesadillas, hot dogs, cheese steak hoagies, burgers and fries. For dessert they were selling funnel cakes, ice cream and cotton candy.
We got to our block of 14 seats and even though our noses were bleeding, we still had a great view of the field far below and an even better one of the monster screen in front of us.
The Aggie fans were already loud, intimidating and in perfect sync with one another, and when they jumped out to a very quick 10-0 lead, they just got louder.
That was when I decided to take a walk, my usual M.O. when falling behind so early. I just couldn’t bear to watch. That was a problem however, because there were flat screens everywhere showing the game. So I bought a hot dog and headed back to my seat, arriving just in time to see Ryan Mallet throw a touchdown strike to Broderick Green.
It only got better from there as we outscored them 24-0 in the 2nd quarter, spurred by a game-changing 85-yard touchdown on a fumble recovery by Jerry Franklin. The second half was largely stress free and at the end the Hogs had taken the 1st Annual Southwest Classic, 47-19.
We walked out into the cool, damp Texas night, filing away another great memory for future smiles.
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If you haven’t ever seen “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on The Food Network, then you’re missing out. Last Monday night I turned to it because the Eagles were trouncing the Redskins. The host of the show is that guy named Guy. He was at a restaurant in Atlanta where they were making chicken and dumplings. They looked great and I wished I had some.
Low and behold, the next day for our Rotary meeting at The Clinton Library we were served chicken and dumplings, proving all you have to do is wish.
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