If You Could Have Heard

What We Saw

One of the many possibilities when going for a paddle is to find serenity. On some days the water lays down a soft carpet and makes little if any noise, and there is only the sound of water that drips off the blade during recovery. Attending a big ten football game, on the other hand, is anything but quiet.

Last Saturday Lady Linda, her brother, his wife and I joined along with 88,000 of our closest fellow alumni and students of the U. of Wisconsin (big red) for its first foot ball game of the season. Had you been there, you would not have been able to hear the sound of water dripping off your paddle or, for that matter, a piano falling ten stories and hitting the pavement. The collegiate-alumni crowd was, to saw the least, loud, while atop of all this noise was the magnificent sounds of a huge, and probably the best in the world, marching band.

It started with a pregame concert at the south union, then a parade to the stadium. Then there was constant music, wandering tuba players serenading each section and, of course, the half time show...
...which consisted of the full marching band, the freshman marching band and the alumni marching band. There was, to be sure, no shortage of musicians, instruments or sound. The second half of the game also had a constant sound track with music and silliness going on all the time. And, when it was finally over...
...all the bands, the pom-pom girls and the cheer leaders took to the field for more traditional post game mayhem. You may notice in the above photo that some are doing a polka. They played the Budweiser song (When you've said Wis-consin...you've said it all) along with the Chicken Song and other operatic classics. Finally, when I was sure everyone was too drained to move (remember many of these are college students), the band formed outside the stadium for a parade back to home base.

When I got home I went for a quiet paddle.

Paddle safe...

DS