Tailgating in The Grove

If you’ve never to Mississippi-good for you!  SNL can confirm that generally, unless you enjoy mocking the corpulent, poor and uneducated, there’s no need to hop on Orbitz and plan a trip.  There is, however, one notable exception- a statistical outlier of sorts- which is Oxford and more specifically, The Grove on gameday. SNL never kids about life’s most serious topics, girls, booze and football, and The Grove is a veritable oasis of all 3 amidst the desert of culture that is the remainder if “Missip.” 

Seriously, The Grove can easily slake the thirst of the boozingest, skirt-chasingest, football lovin’ fool on the plantet.  Now, it has been surmised by others much wiser than SNL that The Grove’s appeal is, at least in part, due to its contrast with the rest of the state (and most of the deep south for that matter), which is hot, humid, barren, and overall largely the same as it was when the North invaded in the mid 1800’s.  This is a plausible hypothesis, but after experiencing The Grove (once mind you), any sane person will vehemently disagree. 

Gameday at The Grove is similar to attending a Southern Ball, replete with debutantes and aristocrats from all walks of life.  Candelabras, chandelilers, tophats, canes, even monacles can be found (SNL could swear that Mr. Peanut was present in a Rebel jersey).  Rife with saddle shoes, BMW’s, men dressed like Colonel Sanders and khakis-the scene is truly surreal and resembles a gala event for the southern aristocracy circa 1850 more than a football game.   

Also, despite the fact that the crowd is seriously, seriously homogenous (as in, not a brutha’ in sight-well, a few, but not many), the omnipresent Rebel Flags, which in most cases are flown triumphantly from raggedy automobiles by complete losers, somehow morph into a calming symbol of solidarity once you enter The Grove. 

Unfortunately for Ole Miss, the transcendant experience of The Grove will be nowhere near The Swamp this Saturday when the mighty Gators emerge from the tunnel…so, put on your big boy pants, next post is all about football….

-So Sayeth the Shepherd