As a graduate of Valdosta State, I've always backed the home team and attended games. That said: now that I am sending checks to support my UGA student (and even larger checks to UGA itself) I decided this year to finally sit outside the hedges and drink in the experience for myself for the very first time.

It was very, very good.

Thanks to a well off banker friend who couldn't make it, I was sitting on the 47 yd line on the home side 13 rows up. I can see how that can get habit-forming very fast.

Things I now know that I didn't know before:

• What the h-e-double hockey-sticks people say at the kick off.. You can never make it out on the TV.
• That you are supposed to twirl your hat (in my case, a Fedora) when a kick off occurs. Why, I don't know, but you do.
• The words to Glory Glory to Georgia and a whole bunch of other fight songs.
• That people wave four fingers to some song at the start of the fourth quarter.
• That if you are a ref and you toss a flag on Williams for no good reason that the place gets incredibly loud.
• That there is a fence running inside the hedges
• That young teenages without enough tickets will perch their girlfriends in their laps for an entire game. I don't blame them.
• That Ugga can dream about bones during the third quarter with an entire band rocking out just a few feet up from his head.
• That every time Morgan goes to kick a PAT, everyone around you holds their breath.
• That when you drive through a little town east of Jullianne that has blocked the main drag for a fall festival, they don't put up detour signs: they put up signs pointing you to the "UGA Game" instead.

Some questions I would like answered:

• What's with the raising of the helmets and marching towards the end zone in the pregame?
• And what is that song they play when they do?
• Why does a guy play the trumpet from up in the nose bleed section when the team runs out on the field?
• Why does Athens have more Milledge streets than Atlanta has Peachtree Streets?
• How do very drunk fans take down elaborate tailgate setups without killing themselves or destroying a lot of expensive equipment? I heard a lot of demonstrative language in the Hobbs Parking Lot!

My wife and I had a very great time at the game, a fun visit with a suddenly taller and thinner child, and a fantastic meal downtown. Can't wait to go back to the Classic City.