FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART CINQUE

THE SUBLIME: 

The pre-season is over and we're in the week before the 2015 regular season opens at noon at the Chicago Bears. The roster has been set (well almost because I haven't seen who got cut with the signing of James Jones) and it is time for us fans and/or pundits to get ready.

 

Packersbackers #4 (L to R-Me, Timmer, Andrew, Avery)

Like I've mentioned before it is now six days before the unscrewing of the inaugural batch of Mann's Bootleg Brew. I haven't decided whether I open a bottle first to see if it's good or just let the Packerbackers (Timmer Freeman, Therese (Melot) Foltz, Andrew Freeman and Jared Avery) and myself try it the first time when the "Pouring of the Beer" occurs at 1 p.m. I'm leaning towards unveiling it for the first time to all with the "Pouring".

However, I will give all of you a sneak peak of the label. Do you like it or do you hate it? I would like to know.

Mann's Bootleg Brew label

The RIDICULOUS:

Speaking of the "Pouring of the Beer" that is one of our rituals on game day. I am on my on my fourth set of Packerbackers and the "Pouring of the Beer" was established by my first set.

Carbondale is a strange college town. Before 1941 liquor sales were permitted on Sundays, but from 1941 to 1967 liquor by drink was banned on Sundays. Then from 1967 to sometime in the late 1990's it was allowed again, but not until after 1 p.m. which meant people (mainly students from Chicago) had to watch their NFL game an hour before they were able to buy the beer that would drown their sorrows.

So the ritual started not as a ritual, but as a practical thing. When 1 p.m. rolled around we would go get a pitcher of beer and for some reason lost to a fuzzy memory we started calling it the "Pouring of the Beer". And for some reason the Packers started to play better after the first hour of the game.

Now here's part of the story that Timmer doesn't know. Timmer is a big beer drinker and I evolved the "Pouring" and made a ritual about it when he joined the group as a way I didn't get grief for not drinking as much as he and the others did. I was then allowed to not drink until an hour after the game started (even on 3 p.m. or night games).

This is the ridiculous part, but it does seem to work. At first at 1 p.m. the Packer offense would do something good, either make a TD drive or actually score a touchdown when the beer was poured. Of course, nobody believed that until the 2010 Super Bowl.

We were watching the Super Bowl at Timmer's apartment. Timmer, me, Therese, Andrew and Avery were there and when it became time for the "Pouring of the Beer" Nick Collins intercepted Ben Roethlisberger and scored. There is really only one official "Pouring", but this time I made a deal of the second time and at the exact moment Jarrett Bush picked off Roethlisberger. Avery became a believer and the legend of the "Pouring of the Beer" was set in stone. We have other rituals (i.e. like Desperation Shots and the "Drinking of the Green", but more about them in later posts. Let me know what your Packer games rituals are.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

The Cellar

I started going to the Cellar (which is literally located in a cellar) to watch the Packer games in 1994 with Patrick Immel and then a true Wisconsin girl (blonde hair and blue eyes) who I will refer to as Kenosha (for obvious reasons and the fact I don't think we ever knew her name and if anyone reading this is her please contact me and let me know your name. You graduated from SIU with a radio/TV degree and spent the summer of 1998 as an intern at WTMJ-TV covering the Packers training camp).

Packerbackers #2 (L to R-Chuck & Treash, T.C. & Rose)

The second set were Chuck & "May she rest in peace" Treash Sangret and T.C. & Rose Girard. This group stayed together for three years when T.C. & Rose dropped out and Timmer joined in 2001 along with Russ Owen to become the third set. Chuck & Treash dropped out in 2002 and Russ graduated in 2004. The fourth and current set began with me, Timmer and Pete Allen (a White Sox fan from Chicago) who joined in 2004 and stayed until 2007. With me and Timmer as the core Therese met Timmer and joined in 2006, Steve & Jane Crawley joined in 2008, and Andrew joined in 2009 when he turned 21 and spilled his beer his first game soaking another one of my rituals (a sheet I not only keep the starting lineup per game, but the autographs of the various Packer fans who come and go to watch the game with us). Chris McKinley and Dorie McWarren, Jr. joined in 2009 and Avery became the last full-time member in 2010.

A funny story is Timmer didn't know Avery wasn't his first name until at least three years later when I called him Jared one Sunday. Since Andrew had called him Avery he just assumed that was his first name.

Actually over the last 20 years there have been 47 Packerbackers I've met at the bar. It has slowed down the last three years with Timmer and those guys not coming to the Cellar anymore because he bought NFL Sunday Ticket and I only get to the bar for about two or three games a season now.