Dixieland Delight Tour

Last week, during our trip, I finished my book on the second day. That is never good on a four day venture, with a five hour drive home. Mr. Sabbe was reading a book recommended to him by a friend, called Dixieland Delight. Now, I am typically not a sports reader, or watcher for that matter. I route for one team and most Fall Saturdays of my adult life have involved watching that one team, whether it be on tv or at the greatest place on earth {see below}. But my husband's overwhelming urge to constantly laugh out loud and read me excerpts from this book made me very curious.

He writes "I was born and raised in the South, a place where, on Saturdays, the uncertain path of a football in the air seems to float on the collective breath of the region. If you don't care who wins between Alabama and Auburn, you aren't from Alabama. If you don't cringe when you hear the first stident chords of "Gator Bait," then you aren't from Georgia. And if you don't speckly your sentences with y'all, fixin', and reckon or still call your dad Daddy even when you are seventy and he is ninety, then you are probably not going to be familiar with everything I write. That's okay. After all, not everyone can eat at Waffle House, or never get tired of whisky, or turn in every direction on a football Saturday and see gorgeous women standing in sunlight wearing a sundress, replete with heels."

Needless to say, I read the book. I had to. Everyone who went to an SEC school should read this book, especially now with football season approaching. Ever wonder what the heck a War Eagle is and wish you had never heard it? Or why someone would carry a cow bell to a football game? It's all in the book. It made me long for the days of waking up to the sound of Rocky Top blaring through my dorm window, while doing my best to dress myself from head to toe in orange, and having my roommate assist me with placing a temporary tattoo on my left cheek. Those where the days.

So for those of you who did not grow up in the south and can't quite picture what we're talking about, here are some photos and a link to the anthem that gets full grown men all over the state of Tennessee dancing a jig, while shaking an orange and white pompom over his head.

And for those who are still in the south, dusting off your car flags and tailgating tents...send the SEC and particularly our Vols my love. We'll miss her this year.

Phil, may you rest in peace {he's retired, not dead} But to some SEC fans that equals the same thing.

where all the magic began

and p.s. if I had a dollar for everytime someone (including myself) commented on my hair also being orange in relation to me being a true fan, I would be a rich woman.

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