41 years ago, Trav called Kate with great news – he’d been invited to fly down with friends to Jacksonville for the game! Hooray! Go Dawgs! Did Kate mind? This was our year! Woof Woof Woof Woof Woof.
I imagine she stared down at my less than a month old burrito self while she listened to 18 month old Travers IV destroy something in the other room and thought something other than “Go Dawgs” but it might have had the same syllable count and cadence as “WOOF.”
Obviously my mother is a saint and gem among women, and my dad got to see Lindsay run as he himself once ran. 1980 included the death of my sister Alice in June, and in a year marked with heartbreak and loss, Georgia won the national championship.
The past year and a half have been devastatingly sad, and I have struggled at times with the frivolity of football in the face of such widespread loss and grief. This season brought me back to the fact that football connects me to the people I love, to the memories I cherish, and to the hope that springs eternal when the Dawgs are 7-0 and the weather is getting crisp. I feel it in my bones, it is in my blood. We must revel in the happy times.
This season is a happy time. Turn it Loose.
With great bulldawg affection –
Charlsie Kate Paine
Athens, Georgia
October 2021
P.S. As always, call your college roomie and your cousin you never talk to – remind them of that one GA/FLA in the 80s when you both got left at your grandparent’s condo in Valdosta and lived to tell the tale. The forecast is chilly, plan accordingly!
P.P.S. Are we changing gear on Saturday? Like after the Georgia game, do I need to change into my Braves gear? Mental note, find old or buy new Braves gear.
P.P.P.S I tore my house apart looking for a better photo of my boss mother at a Georgia Florida game, but the best I have is this ridiculous photo of me from 1992 with Kate looking fierce in the background, I believe walking out of Sawgrass. It’s a very 1992 photo and I threw in a 1992 Landing photo of T3, T4, and me for good measure
the thin line between optimism and delusion... 