I am 44.
The Olan Mills photographer called me Major Ogilvie to get me to smile for the school picture.
I was seven for the Goal Line Stand in 1979, and really didn't comprehend what all the fuss was about. As you said, Alabama didn't really lose to anybody.
I was nine for Bryant's 315th win in Legion Field, one of the few games I actually got to attend in those days. The 50-50 crowd split was cool.
It wasn't until Pat Dye and Bo Jackson made Auburn competitive that the Auburn rivalry started to heat up for me. "Bo Over the Top," "Wrong Way Bo," and "The Kick" are cemented in my memory, and provided my first encounter with trash talk, which was completely unknown to me before then.
I remember well "My Bo" -- a "My Girl" parody making fun of Bo Jackson and his speech impediment, that I-95 played on the radio following the famous botched play.
Sure, Alabama lost to Tennessee in the early 1980s but there was no one to rub it in.
Then I went to boarding school in Tennessee starting in 1986. Tennessee had won four straight, but Alabama was good and Tennessee was not. Thankfully, Alabama whooped Tennessee, rushing for 450+ yards and six touchdowns, and Shula threw two touchdowns on three (3!) completions en route to a 56-28 thrashing that didn't seem THAT close. A long Alabama winning streak over Tennessee began that year, so I never had to endure the pain of a loss in enemy territory, but I did come to know firsthand of their unadulterated hatred, and learned to reciprocate it. We were the only ones to beat them in 1989. They came close to returning the favor in 1992, but came up short. They will never forget and never forgive, and that's fine. Incidentally, that winning streak came to an end the one time I attended a Tennessee game in person. In 1995, on the first play from scrimmage, Peyton Manning hooked up with Joey Kent for an 80 yard touchdown, setting the tone for a defeat as miserable as the 1986 victory was sweet.
fify
I still have Tennessee friends and I have to just ignore Facebook around the time of game week.
There is no getting away from Auburn fans. They're insufferable when they're any good.
Between Fulmer's antics, and Tuberville's Fear the Thumb, I don't care if we never play either one of those teams ever again, but if we do, I want us to stomp a mudhole in them and walk it dry.