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Friday’s Weekend Column
Football in the South by James Glaser
Last weekend Florida State University lost their football game to Clemson. I watched the game on the television, and FSU had a great game. The score was tied at 20 with just a minute to play. Clemson scored, and that was that. The guy in the studio next to me hand paints signs, pin stripes cars, paints about anything you can think of, and he was bummed. Not so much because FSU lost, but because that loss would hurt his business. Now this guy works from morning to night and on the weekends too, but this week he was doing shop clean up, designing future projects, and calling on the phone looking for work. I remember a few weeks ago when he was telling me that when the University lost in football, the whole town goes into a funk. He was right. His business went into the tank, restaurants were way less crowded, and many people seemed to be in a bad mood. The inverse is true when they win. People are upbeat, all of Tallahassee is smiling, and you better leave for lunch early if you want a table right away. Some things about Tallahassee remind me of growing up in Saint Paul. Both cities are State Capitals. State Capitals are clean towns. They don't have a lot of night life, but they usually devote a lot to the arts. I think that is so the legislators can have "cultural" things to do. When you think about all the State jobs in both of these cities, you have a good part of the population working at good paying jobs. Capital cities have police departments that have better equipment, and I have noticed down here that policeman keep their uniforms looking a little nicer. It is kind of like they are always on parade status for the politicians. Growing up in Saint Paul I was always using the great park system and my family lived right by Highland Park, with the golf course, swimming pools, woods, ball parks, play grounds, and acres of just grass. Tallahassee is filled with parks. Big ones, little ones, and they have everything Saint Paul had and more. Tallahassee actually has trails for horse back riding. Saint Paul did have cross country ski trails, but I haven't seen any of those down here. All in all, capital cities are a great place to live, great places to raise children, and great places to retire in. Yes, they don't usually have the fast paced night life of other cities, but they do have a friendly conservative air about them that makes you want to stay. |
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