One day my cousin and I rode into the local big city with his dad to
drop him off at work and then take his car for a little exploring for
the day. The city happened to be the state capitol and the home of
the Florida State University Seminoles. When we dropped his dad off
my cousin noticed that someone had written 'How bout them noles' in
the dust on a sign under the porch in front of the business. My
cousin walked up and wrote, 'They Suck!' underneath the original
inscription. Southerners take a few things very seriously, they love
sport, sports, and watching sports - in that order.
 |
| Thou shalt not take the name of the 'Noles in vain. - That's from the Bible. |
The response to a
silly retort on the dust rallying cry was almost instant and much
more fierce than I would have expected. A grown man saw what he had
written and ran over to ask him what the hell he meant by that. My
cousin said he was just joking around and that he didn't mean
anything by it. The aggressive old man was riled up pretty good
steaming for a fight when my quite mellow uncle came back outside to
see what was the fuss. He figured out the story and began apologizing
for his son and he instructed my cousin to erase his inclusion and to
apologize. That turned down the flames of rage but the red hot coals
of injured pride still simmered and festered as the old canker spent
the next five minutes explaining how much the 'noles meant to that
region of Florida and the nation. We listened politely and humbly
until we could reasonably break away and get on the road and away
from the offended football fan. We laughed about almost being killed
but I think we were both a little more rattled than we admitted to
each other. Just imagine what kind of intellectual juggernaut the
American South could be if they put that kind of passion into
academics.
