Wednesday, 1/4

Okay.  I wrote about a family New Year tradition yesterday.  Now for a personal one.

I finally got around to watching the Sun Bowl last night, only a mere four days after it was played.  I didn't know who the teams were in the game, and I had no vested interest in how it turned out, which may account for the fact that I waited four days to watch it.  Heck, I don't even LIKE college football, which makes recording--and watching--the Sun Bowl even stranger.

But I've watched it every year since the late 80s, so why stop?

Here's the deal--the Sun Bowl is always played on December 30th at, well, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.  I'm usually working on December 30th, and like most people in radio I will have a TV on in the background, if not to keep me company then to keep me abreast of what's going on in the world (Hello, January 6th, 2021).  One year right after I started in radio the Sun Bowl came on, and I thought the setting for the stadium--literally built into a mountain-side--was cool, so I watched it.  I made a point of watching it the next year, just to see the cool stadium again, and well, thirty-some years later I'm still watching it.

For the stadium, of course.  And the tradition of it all.

Every single year, I have no idea who's playing in the game and, as I mentioned, it really doesn't matter.  I don't watch the game for the game; I watch it for the scenery.  In fact, over the past few years I've actually started to DVR the game and scan through the actual football stuff just to get to the commercial breaks, going into which they show what I'm looking for.

Yes, I know I'm strange.  What's your point?

So feel free to ask me who won or what kind of play there was.  Even though I just went through the game last night, I have no idea.  But if you ask me what kind of shots they had of the stadium and the mountain into which its built, I can tell you in vivid detail.

After all, that's why I keep carrying on this strange personal tradition.

(jim@wmqt.com)