Michigan sports has suffused our 9 month retreat to Ann Arbor. During the football season, we could hear every Michigan Wolverines football game from our house. And nearly every evening, we could also hear, more faintly, the marching band out practicing their songs and routines. We often went to watch them practice; the public can sit, if they want, in a set of bleachers facing an exactly-football-field-sized parking lot, and see the band go through their paces. This activity, coupled withs some raisins or a sippy cup of milk, was a sure way to please a grouchy early-evening Elliot. On the flip side, telling him we were NOT going to watch band practice (which he could, of course, HEAR!) was often a touchy proposition. So we did watch a significant amount of band practice.
Elliot memorized the Michigan fight song before we knew what had happened (he can do that??) and it's been a staple of his existence ever since -- he played it on the kazoo this morning, in fact. They also have chants which he likes.
It's GREAT...
To BE...
A MIchigan WOLverine it's
GREAT...
To BE...
etc., etc.
OOO OOO GO BLUE GO BLUE
etc., etc.
Elliot generally misheard "Michigan Wolverines," though, as "Michigan Mulberries" (which does make sense, if you say it the way they say it in the chant). That tickled us, so when this new embryonic creature came along (high five!), we semi-christened it a Michigan Mulberry.
But . . . that name already wore off, and usually we just call it Blue, as in
We also declare that this new Blue is ALL IN, as in
And we bought Sarah a five-dollar Michigan T-shirt that simply says ALL IN on the front -- in huge collegiate block lettering. Then we bought the same shirt again, in a huge pregnancy size that she can't even wear yet. ALL IN.
3 comments:
This story is engaging, and I would much like to see your charming Elliot's rendition of the fight song. My favorite thing is the mulberry. I had been wondering what you would call this new someone, the name of an animal, vegetable, or another fruit. Perhaps a quince?
The one mulberry I have eaten was so delicious that I now have 2 sprigly mulberry trees out front. So now I am anxious to meet your new mulberry, Blue.
We just bought a piggy bank that plays the fight song ( teddy always asks if that is the song that people listen to when they fight). I bought it on a whim at a discount store, but the clerk wanted to tell me that they get lots of Michigan items, just in case I needed to stock up. You know, for a tailgate party. In Indiana. I too, find the Michigan sports fanaticism very amusing and try to keep a few "Go Blue" items in my house at all times.
How sad. And to think, I just finally posted on my blog and said in there "whatever makes you a better mother, aside from crystal meth or maybe rooting for Michigan, I say go for it." Sometime, maybe Elliot can teach me the real words to Hail to the Victors. I only know the version I was taught in Ohio, and I certainly hope Elliot doesn't know that one. Yet.
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