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A few nights ago, Bobby, Todd, and myself went to a Birmingham Bulls hockey game. I went to a lot of them in my earlier years, but hadn't been to one in a while. We didn't have anything else to do, so we went.
Hockey, at least in Birmingham, brings out a lot of interesting people. There's a healthy mix of the little boys who like to watch people hit other people really hard, coupled with the redneck men who like to watch people hit other people really hard. A large chunk of these guys are accompanied by their wives/girlfriends/young cousins who don't actually enjoy the game or want to be there, but come to appease their beer- swilling partner and to avoid being beaten, plus keep an eye on them. The fact that this reasoning somehow outweighs the embarassment of being seen in public with these guys amazes me.
There are, of course, some randomly thrown in people, like us, who just happen to be there and aren't present on a regular basis. A few families are always there on a family activity night or whatever, but I'm pretty sure they're just there for the food and whatever giveaway is that night.
It is, of course, perpetually Trashy Outfit Night for the women at the Bulls games. This is done so that in the third period, when all the men are drunk, they will still hit on their wives instead of the cute girl on the row behind them.
The Bulls Girls have gone politically correct since I last saw them. They wear a substantially larger amount of clothes than they used to, which in several cases is a very good thing.
For the first part of the game, we were sitting in front of some very avid Bulls fans. They knew all the players by their first names. I never figured out if they were family of one of the players or just people with no real life, but no matter. We later moved and were sitting much closer behind two guys wearing autographed Bulls jerseys and homemade Bulls hats, complete with aluminum foil horns on the side. Both had the requisite "Kick ice" slogan on the back, but one of them said "Oh yeah!" on the top. Don't ask me...I think these must be the two people who actually go to road games or something. They had like every piece of Bulls merchandise imaginable (which, believe it or not, is a lot). That reminds me, I saw a booth out in the concourse where you could sign up for a Bulls credit card. Gimme a break...
I almost forgot...there was a hockey game going on in the middle of all this. The Bulls are horrible now, and got beat 5-3 or so. I don't remember much about the goals, but several of the fights were pretty good. I'm beginning to believe Bobby's theory that some of the fights are as fake as pro wrestling...honestly now, what do these people have to hate each other about? We were playing Mobile...yeah, it's an interstate rivalry, but what are they saying down on the ice, "You Mobile scum! I hate you! Birmingham rules! Of course, we're both from Canada and don't even know where we are right now...say, didn't you grow up down the street from me?"
So anyway, that was my hockey experience.