It's A Small World After All!

I met a girl from New Zealand on top of the lighthouse in St. Augustine last year. She saw my Bama hat and in her NZ accent said "Roll Tide." I was stunned someone from the South Pacific knew about Alabama football. Turns out she lives in the US now and used to be married to a Bama fan.

I went on a choir trip with my HS choir the summer after graduation. We went to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. While there we ran into a family who was from Alabama. I was wearing a shirt that had my HS on it...and found out after talking to the couple that they graduated from the same HS I did! Of course they graduated a good 10 years earlier than I did...but it was still amazing. Also...on that same trip...we sang at a church for their Sunday service...and there was an older man...probably 65 or so...that was wearing an Alabama shirt. He was very proud of it and let us all know that he was a foreign exchange student when he was younger and attended the University of Alabama. I think we were in Switzerland at the time. Anyway...talk about a small world. I met people that were on both sides of me at that time in my life. I had just graduated form HS...met a couple that graduated from the same HS...and I was about to start at Bama that fall...met a guy who was an exchange student at Bama when he was younger.

RTR!!!

Back in the fall of 1988, my cousin and I went to Allentown PA. to lay brick on a house for a contractor that my cousin had met in the Virgin Islands while doing stucco work down there. We left for Allentown the Sunday after Bama had beat Penn St. 8-3.

Monday evening after we had gotten settled in our motel we ventured into the nearest bar to the motel and give them yanks a hearty redneck southern Bama ribbing, lol! I tell you what them yanks didn't know what had happened to them. The crew I took with me loved to arm wrestle and shoot pool and they had them people thouroughly shook up! My cousin, a big barn fan was even hollering "ROLL TIDE" at the top of his lungs. It was a sight I promise you, but after a couple hours I seen that the establishment was getting a little worried, so I corralled my guys back to the motel.

We had been working on the house for about a week and one afternoon a man pulled up and got out wearing an Alabama baseball cap. The first thing he said was "Roll Tide", and of course he got a big "Roll Tide" right back. He introduced himself as the owner of the house and that when he heard the brickmasons laying his house were from Alabama he had to come by and meet us. Come find out his son was attending Bama.

Another thing that surprised me was that he said he had lived in PA all his life but the biggest ice storm he had ever seen was in Tuscaloosa one year while visiting his son. Maybe some of you remember it. I can't remember the guys name today but it wasn't Namath, lol! Too many dead brain cells from all the alcohol, lol! :biggrin2:

I was recently visiting Hawaii with my wife we had just sat for a show at the CultureAL Center when a gentleman sat beside me. Without looking up he leaned over and remarked how much he liked my Bama shirt. It turns out he was from PA and a life long Bama fan. Said he had a pic he had made autographed by CPB the last week of his life!! He said he watched games every time he could and it was also a goal of his to attend a game @BDS. He also enjoyed the once/year colors day in his office when everyone else was PSU, Pitt or Penn and his was the lone Bama sweater. We also got several ROLL TIDES as we travelled thru different airports. Makes you feel kinda special!!
Didn't get me bumped to 1st class though

Probably biggest shocker I had like this was changing planes at Narita International, Tokyo, Japan. I had a Bama hat on and as I was getting through security, the Japanese Security Agent pointed at my ball cap and with a huge grin said "ROLL TIDE, Go Alabama". I think my jaw about hit the floor.

Nicodemus said:

I met a girl from New Zealand on top of the lighthouse in St. Augustine last year...

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For a minute there I thought I was reading Penthouse Letters for the first time in 20 years...

I have a friend from Alaska that now lives in DC and she had never been to a college football game. She came to visit in '03 and I took her to homecoming game against Southern Miss (Brandon Avalos' lone start if I remember correctly.) Anyway, she was just blown away at the size of the stadium, the cheers (especially Rammer Jammer), etc. Basically the entire gameday experience blew her away.

So, she emails me last year after her and her husband got back from their honeymoon in France. They were on a riverboat in Paris and got to talking to some other Americans. The people told her they were from Alabama. She got all excited and said "Roll Tide!" They told her they were Auburn fans and wanted to know why a DC girl would automatically say, "Roll Tide." She told them, "Well, from the way I understand the rivalry, it's amazing Auburn fans could afford the trip over."

She said they took it well and knew she was joking, but I thought that was awesome. She's been to one Bama game in her life and was talking trash to Barners on a riverboat in France.

Isaiah 63:1 said:

For a minute there I thought I was reading Penthouse Letters for the first time in 20 years...

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LOL.

My wife was with me, so that would've been a really interesting letter...:eek2:

Nicodemus said:

LOL.

My wife was with me, so that would've been a really interesting letter...:eek2:

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Go on....

Back when I was in the USAF, stationed in the Pacific, I was on leave in Tokyo. I was walking down the street one day and saw a young woman coming toward me wearing a crimson sweatshirt with Alabama Crimson Tide printed on the front. She looked like she might be a college student, so I stopped her and asked if she attended Alabama. She said no, she liked it because it was "American" and asked me what it meant. We had a cup of coffee and I told her about UA. Definitely not a "Penthouse letter" but it was pretty cool and she really liked knowing what the writing on her sweatshirt meant.

I was in NYC last week and saw several people with Bama gear on and even yelled Roll Tide to a couple of them...not too exciting, but it made me happy to see other Bama fans up there:biggrin2:

BamaFanKyle said:

I was in NYC last week and saw several people with Bama gear on and even yelled Roll Tide to a couple of them...not too exciting, but it made me happy to see other Bama fans up there:biggrin2:

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I remember going to that toy store in NYC when I was 5 or so and 3 kids were sliding across the piano keys tackling each other. Sure enough, they had a #12 Bama jersey. Not sure how I remember that.

A few years ago I took a road trip out across the country with a few friends and of all places ended up in Salem Oregon. We were at a stoplight about to get back onto I-5 when this lady pulled up next to us and gave me a very strange look. She started making frantic motions for me to roll down my window and so I did thinking something must be wrong. When my window was finally opened she leaned out of her car and screamed "ROLL TIDE!!!". At the time I was a UA student so we yelled back that we were students from Tuscaloosa and she said that she'd always been a fan. I guess she saw our Alabama tag and the fact that I was wearing my Bama cap. It's interesting just how far you can get away from T-town and still run into the Bama family.

My mom goes to get her nails done at a place in town and the people that run it are vietnamese. She saw one day that they put something in an Alabama cup. she asked if it was just a random cup or if they were fans of bama. They gave her a big "Roll Tide" in their vietnamese accents and said they used to live in Birmingham. It is a small world, especially when we all cheer for the greatest team ever.

RTR

I grew up in England but I got my first taste of Alabama football on Armed Forces TV when I was working in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1970's. I loved the way Coach Bryant leaned against the goal post before game time.

When I eventually ended up in Orange Hell I got to see more SEC games. I tried to become a Vol fan (heaven forbid and I am almost too ashamed to admit it) but just kept falling asleep as their games were so boring and the orange was hard on the eyes. So I watched Bama games and loved everything about them. That has been 25 years ago and I still give a big ROLL TIDE!

I live in Belgium and I see bama shirts and Bama fans all over Europe. A lot of them are other military people, but some are actually European. I was in Paris one day and 3 separate groups had people with Bama hats/shirts.

I travel all over the country for my job, and I have to tell you, I see more Barners living out of the southeast than I do Bama fans. Just goes to show you how far they have to go to get away from their school's reputation. :rolleye2:

By the way:

crmsnrevelation said:

I used to live in Philadelphia PA, and have learned to cook a pretty decent philly cheese steak. Now that I am here in Kosciusko I run a conscession trailer and sale primarily cheese steaks.

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You don't use that hideous cheese sauce, do you? I've started several downright yelling matches by sharing my opinion that one can't get a decent philly cheese steak in Philadelphia due to that stuff. You have to go far enough away that they use provolone or something. Not that I'm trying to start a fight, of course... :biggrin2:

A couple of years ago my wife and I were on an Alaskan cruise. On the first day out of San Fran I was up having coffee around 6:00 AM. An elderly gentleman noticed my Bama lapel pin on a blazer and told me he had always been a Bama fan and always watched them on TV. He joined me for coffee but said he had never even been in Alabama. He had lived his whole life in California. He introduced himself as George Brown. Over coffee he mentioned his uncle even played for Alabama but that was so long ago that I had probably never heard of him. His uncle was Johnny Mack Brown. We had coffee every morning for the next two weeks before our wives joined us for breakfast. In spite of our age differences we became good friends. Every night after a couple of scotches, I would have him nearly talked into coming back for a game with a royal reception, but his age/health made it too difficult. I haven't taken him up on his offer to play Pebble Beach either.

Nicodemus said:

She's been to one Bama game in her life and was talking trash to Barners on a riverboat in France.

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i love that


we were in New York over Thanksgiving and at the Today Show...we had made a Roll Tide sign, and while we were waiting for it to start we saw one of the cameramen had an Alabama hat on, we showed him our sign and he gave us a wave and a smile, and then when they opened the gates and we were waiting for the show to start, he kidded with us more saying stuff like "Got some Bama fans over here" really loud...it was funny. (even smaller world, not bama related, my sister ran into someone she goes to school with at the Today Show!!)

also got on a tour bus in DC and I had on a bama shirt, and heard SEVERAL Roll Tide's. when we got off at a stop, we found out one of them yelling it was from Fairhope (i live in gulf shores)...small world.