Chain Gang

"We don't get paid til' the lines get laid"

My mom is the secretary for the Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and today is their annual golf outing. Last night she asked if I would mind waking up early to help her set up. Of course I told her it wouldn't be a problem...not realizing she would walk into my room at 7 AM to drag me over to the Frankford-Torresdale country club. Now anyone who knows me, knows I'm probably the farthest thing from a morning person. Plus I hate coffee...although I do like donuts.

But, if there were a time that I didn't mind waking up early, it was over the past four years when I got to spend time with my boys in the chain gang.

You ever, heard the saying "two wrongs don't make a right?" Well, in our case maybe it's more like "Any more than two wrongs definately make it right." There was not a single person in our chain gang that could be defined as anything close to a morning person (well maybe Luis). Yet, there we were every Saturday at dawn, doing our thing on Patterson Field at Ursinus College. Most of the time we would have to do wake up calls, or occasionally do a pickup at somebodies room (We would wake said person up, throw them on the back of the tractor, only to have to wake them up again when we got to the field) to get the whole squad together. I don't think a single organization on campus would be able to out-drink the chain gang on a Friday night. But we would be there...rain or shine, bright and early. And we would create. We would create week after week what would go on to be described as the "prettiest field in the Centennial Conference."

We would have the occasional screw up or the occasional trip to the emergency room...after all we're only human. But you know what? Nobody ever got mad, nobody ever got angry. Instead we laughed...had fun. We all knew everybody would rather be sleeping, so why not make it worth our while. Make a story out of it, ya know? Like the one time I painted 40 yard marker on the 35 yard line...or the time Ryan did a back flip out the trailor when he got hit with the mats because Z and Deuce pushed a little to hard...or the time Robbie stomped the shit out of a mouse cuz he thought that was normal.

But with all that in mind. I think the best part about it, was knowing how proud we all were of what we created. And how proud the Bears football team was to play on it. Even if it was only there for a couple hours before we had to do it all over again.

Getting up early today, and smelling the fresh cut grass on the golf course, wasn't really the same. But it did give me a little window back to what we were the last four years. You can call me corny or whatever...but shit I had fun, and we got paid to do it.

"Yo Schem! Run up the bleachers...is the U in the middle of the field straight?"
"Nah...it's a little off to the left."
"Ah fuck it, nobody will notice after the first quarter anyway."

O.L.D.

Credits:
Ursinus Football
UC Chain Gang
Greater Northeast Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce
Frankford-Torresdale Country Club