And How Unpleasant Was It for Fans?
I didn't actually sit in the stands, but it couldn't have been any more fun than moving around no the sideline.
It was cold. And it was windy. That's a bad start.
If you sit, you seem to get colder quicker ... but if you're old, like me, and standing or walking, you feel your back getting tight and achy ... and ugh.
I had on a turtleneck T-shirt, a sweater and a leather coat, and I was still cold. I never learned how to take notes with gloves on, and my cap was just a cap. Nothing with any heft to it. So, yeah, cold hands, cold ears ...
And that was at Colton. It was truly unpleasant over at Arroyo Valley, hard on the banks of the Lytle Creek Wash, just south of the new 210 freeway ...
The wind was blowing harder there because it's right below the mouth of Cajon Pass. It probably was worse at Cajon, where another game was going on. Cajon is (naturally) even farther up the pass ... but it was plenty nasty at Arroyo.
Sitting on the home side was particularly ugly because the wind was blowing right into everyone's face.
Actually, I went over to the Colony sideline to watch the game, just so the wind would be blowing on my back instead of into my eyes. And it was still nasty.
When Colony's lead got to 27-0, a lot of the Arroyo Valley fans left. A Colony parent suggested they weren't showing the proper commitment to their team, but I said I thought it was so miserable -- and this was a minute or two after a huge gust came up and blew about a ton of dust across the field -- that it was fine to leave a game that clearly was decided.
Anyway, I have this theory -- well, more hard experience over several decades than a theory -- that at least one weekend of the CIF football playoffs, every year, is blighted by bad weather.
Let's hope this was it. So we can go to games next weekend without freezing, and maybe even the week after that, when CIF titles will be decided. I'm thinking no wind and maybe 65 degrees. Think we can arrange that?
No wind. That's the first request. Football and wind just don't go well together, especially in this era of passing games and humans who just don't like to face up to Mother Nature when she's acting up.
Comments
That wasn't cold for people who aren't native southern Californians. It's SUPPOSED to be cool when you play football.
Posted by: George Alfano | November 25, 2007 9:21 PM