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Kick Off 1st Game 2014.....

I have my Spartan T-shirt on and some MSU socks,  I have a green apple martini at the ready and avocado green dip in arms reach. Hog Heaven. 730 is kickoff. I'm all settled in.

I actually prefer to listen to the games on radio - Internet that is.  There are 2-3 dozen Michigan stations that carry the pre-game (2 1/2 hrs until kickoff) and they are fun. A couple of them are in the Upper Peninsula - that is Michigander for snow - and they are the most fun.

I was a media director for a bunch of years and that job means that you learn all about a market area, the outlets (radio, TV, print etc.) and figure out how to reach the folks the sponsor wants to reach.  The Upper Peninsula is - how do I say it  - sparsely populated, so the stations are super local with "Hank bought a wrench at the hardware store today...ya'betacha"  news. But in listening in, there is something unbelievably poignant and touching about listening to them.  My Spartan "Pre-Game" is from there tonight.

The local announcers are - well let's just say - local.  The news cut-aways make one cringe.  The overall effect leads one to tears of nostalgia. I wouldn't miss this on a bet.

Here are folks, living comparatively simple, moment to moment lives, tuned in locally on their AM radio as a lot of the Upper Peninsula isn't wired...lights dim as it is already sunset, stove with a good dinner, table set...it is crisp outside; early fall.  Tempted to  build a small fire but would rather sit on the porch and drink in the late summer air, root my Spartans on, remember a 1/2 century ago, and shed a couple tears.