Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Packer Zone

You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of beer and football but of cheese heads. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of Lambeau Field. That's the goal post ahead- next stop, The Packer Zone......

If you have never been to Green Bay, it's a unique place when it comes to football. For those of you who aren't football fans (myself included), this is the home of the Green Bay Packers football team. Now, this is a relatively small town. No sky scrapers, little traffic, lots of farms, etc. What makes them unique is the fact that the town owns the football team.



The fans here are more than enthusiastic about their team. It's more like rabid...kinda scary really. Everyone, and I do mean Everyone watches the game. And then they talk about it all day the next day. When I mentioned that, no, I don't care for football...well, you would have thought I had three heads with horns and fuzzy green things popping out all over!!! On Friday's, when most companies have "dress down day", they have "Packer Day". Businesses from Banks to hospitals and grocery stores are awash in a sea of Green and Gold. During season, local churches change their service time to accommodate the games. They have parties to "relive" Super Bowl 31. (I'm assuming the Packers won that year) They paint their houses green and gold. They carve big G's into the trees. When people found out that Brett Favre was leaving, they cried...cried!!! I'm talking about grown men! They are seeing an increased number of patients with depression because of this! Again, for non-football folks, he was the quarterback here since, like, 1915 or something. I am not making any of this up! OK... maybe the 1915 part, but that's it! I was told by one mother not to mention Brett Farve to my 10 year old patient because he is very upset about the whole thing. Seriously?!?!



Let me give you a couple of examples:


Portage, Wis.- Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Green-Bay-Packers jersey during the teams playoff victory in January, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him


Green Bay, Wis.- David Whitthoff has worn his Brett Favre jersey every day since receving it as a Christmas gift in 2003. His mother washes it every two days and mends it when needed.


Then there's the "Green Bay Bikini Girls". These are three women who wear bikinis to all the home games no matter the weather!! I'm talking about 23 below zero! Even beer freezes at that temperature, which is, by the way, the biggest complaint at Lambeau Field.


I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I'm including a few pics to prove my case.

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