It's 'tailgating' time at 'The Q!'

The days are beginning to get longer, the leaves look like they are just barely hanging on and the sound of helmets clashing reverberates through the fall air. It’s football season again and with football season comes another football fan-honored tradition – the tailgate party!

At the Charger tailgate parties and games grown men wear things that they normally wouldn’t be caught dead wearing: little gold necklaces with plastic footballs – faces painted half blue and half gold…and lightening bolts on the head.

Some say that the tailgate party dates to the beginning of American football. In 1869 at the Rutgers and Princeton game, football fans took food with them because concession stands hadn’t been invented yet. But, I’ll bet that during the Roman Gladiator Games the onlookers discussed the upcoming contests while munching on bread, wine and maybe a fish or two.

The American tailgate party has evolved into an event in our culture that has grown beyond the football game to baseball, concerts and other events. However, I think that when most people hear the word “tailgating” they think of football.

In my case, the tailgate party was a necessity; I learned from my late arrival at my first professional football game about four years ago. My dad and I were on our way to a Chargers/San Francisco 49ers game at Qualcomm Stadium and I thought that leaving three hours to travel about fifty miles was plenty of time. I didn’t count on a huge traffic jam on I-15 where some of the passengers actually left the cars to walk to the stadium. We finally got to the game at halftime.

After this misadventure, I consulted with an expert, a friend of mine who takes her motorhome to the Charger games and gets to the parking lot with five hours to spare…and five hours to eat and drink and be merry. “We always get there early, get a good parking spot and never miss a second of the game,” she said.

A motorhome is the ultimate tailgating tool, complete with a kitchen, stove, cushy seating and maybe even air conditioning. There are companies now that manufacture tailgating trailers. Some are open like a boat and others are enclosed and equipped with toilets, retractable awnings, extra-large grills, coolers and taps for beverages.

But for the average American, a truck or a car will have to do. The tailgate of a truck is, of course, where the term “tailgating” was born. I walked around the parking lot before the Chargers/San Francisco 49ers game a couple of weeks back and saw all kinds of tailgaters. Many of the parties were large with clouds of smoke rising in the air from the tri-tips and ribs on the grills. I saw a row of about five canopies lined up together so the tailgaters could go from one canopy to another without getting sunstroke. Many people, like us, just set up canvas chairs. The tailgaters two spaces down from us were eating pizza at their folding table with benches and a built-in umbrella.

For this game I drove through the gates of Qualcomm parking lot four hours before kickoff. With plenty of time to spare I brought out the melamine dishes and cups and feasted on sandwiches, Doritos, Fritos Corn Chips and Oreo cookies. I brought a trunk-load of stuff I wouldn’t normally eat on the same day or at the same time. This is a time to leave your calorie concerns at the parking lot ticket booth. I think that next time I am going to bring a small grill and cook some hamburgers. The smoke from the happy barbequers was making me ravenous and envious.

The veteran tailgater told me that she always takes a lot more food and drink than she thinks she will need. After all, if you get to the parking lot early enough you will need to eat two meals, not just one. Several coolers packed with ice are a good idea. It gets hot in the asphalt and cement world of a tailgate party and a cool drink with a lot of ice helps to make anyone a happy camper.