Submit
a Jascha story
return to home
Tailgating
(as told by Sandy)
From the time of Jascha's
arrival at the University of Michigan Judy and I had tailgate parties at every
home game. There were certain characteristics concerning the tailgates, as well
as Jascha and Gabe (who followed two years later) that many of you are familiar
with, but, I believe, bear repeating.
For instance, we had to set up early in order to get the spot that became our
familiar location in the stadium parking lot. Nevertheless, Jascha and his
friends never arrived more than half an hour before game time. Until they got
there it seemed as though we would have tons of food left over. Five minutes
after they arrived it was obvious that we would be lucky to have any food left
over. As the years went by Jascha's look went from complete college scruffy to
plain old scruffy, to scruffy collegiate. Not that he was necessarily the
scruffiest. There was a real battle in that regard between him and a few of his
other buddies (I think most of you know who you are). But the minute we saw that
smiling face with his genial good humor, all was forgiven. Who cared about
scruffy? Who cared about late? He was there, that's all that counted. He always
had a ready excuse for being late; they were almost always lame, but it didn't
matter.
On the other hand, when Gabe and his friends started coming, en masse, they
almost always arrived on time (at least an hour before game time) and the
scruffiness was at a bare minimum, if it existed at all.
Towards the end of his time in Ann Arbor, Jascha started spending at least as
much time at the Jaffe tailgate as he did at ours. Gabe also liked to go over
there, but it seemed as though Jascha was more attracted to it than Gabe was. To
some extent it is a little blurry as to how much of that development took place
before he graduated from Michigan and how much of it took place afterwards when
he and I went up to the football games. We stopped doing our tailgates, as most
of you know, except for certain rare occasions, the minute that Gabe graduated.
That made the Jaffe tailgate the one that we normally spent our time at and the
one that we all enjoyed. For Jascha it was more than just a social experience.
He actually went for the food and for the liquor which he consumed in more than
meager amounts.
But, to me, the defining moment with regard to the tailgates was the sight of
Jascha with his always insufficient clothing (considering the cold
temperatures), walking with his hands in his pockets, leading his pack of
friends to the tailgate, smile on face, hunger, friendliness and love in his
eyes.
Submit
a Jascha story
return to home
|