Memories: The Frozen Tundra

An old roommate and friend, Tom S, passed this little tidbit along today, so I thought I'd share it and reflect in anticipation of this weekend's conference championship game against the Giants:

Crazy Joey and I took a trip today to Green Bay to help shovel the stadium for Sunday's game. We arrived at Lambeau around 8:30 am, and there were already about 200 people waiting in line. They opened the gate at 10 am, and the first 300 got shovels. We worked until noon, removing snow and ice from the bleachers and aisles as best we could with the low-grade shovels provided. At the end, we both got paid $16.00 ($12 of which I spent right away at the fan store).



















The group of shovelers seemed to be mostly locals, however there was an elderly woman behind us in line who had driven up from Milwaukee to participate. A lot of the shovelers who were around us in line expressed their plans for the money they were about to earn - beer! I've attached some pics and a video I took while there - they show the 2 groups of shovelers on both sides of the stadium, and also how we had to move the slide that we used to send the snow down to the field. This was my first trip to Lambeau...overall, a very interesting experience.














Nice work, Joey!

While I've never had the opportunity to shovel dear old Lambeau, I remember standing outside the Packer practice field once near sunset with my little blue 20" Huffy Python hoping a player would pick my bike to ride back to the showers in the stadium. This was in the Don Majkowski/Sterling Sharpe era. I remember being crestfallen when no player, much less #7, picked my bike (looking back, it was far too small!). But I felt even worse when an older kid spat on my tire in a way that told me what he thought of my ride.

Luckily, my love for the stadium was rekindled with visits using Grandma's pair of tickets (she and Grandpa were genuinely at the Ice Bowl in 1967) and later seared into my mind with a series of visits in the mid-to-late '90s when my father acquired "Milwaukee Tickets" in the front row near the corner of the endzone, mere feet from Lambeau Leap territory. It was always a good time, especially games against da Bears. Like it or not, my other set of grandparents and extended family living in the Town of Green Bay helped pay, through taxes, for the stadium renovation.














Yesterday, walking down Magazine Street here in New Orleans in a red Badgers shirt, a man on a doorstep got up and hi-fived me spontaneously saying the Packers were going to the Super Bowl. I hope he's right.



Go, Pack, go!

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