How’s your weekend going?
Our Saturday started with a University of Minnesota Gopher football game and ended with a rainy evening at home – much needed, I might add, as we’ve been in quite a drought around here as of late.
But first, the Gopher game.
It was the inaugural “Celebrate Food and Ag Day” at TCF Bank Stadium, as the Gophers took on Western Illinois in a non-conference game. (The Big Ten season doesn’t start until September 28, when Minnesota takes on Iowa.)
The Minnesota Turkey Growers Association was a sponsor of Food and Ag Day, so several of us from the office headed to the campus Saturday morning to set up a table in the stadium. We highlighted careers in the poultry industry; talked, well, turkey to people who stopped by; and had a couple of fun giveaways – temporary tattoos and “Gobble Gobble” can coolies. We also had “Tom Turkey” circulating for photo opportunities. (Joe, as always, was a good sport – letting his mom take various photos of him throughout the day!)
Funny thing about Tom Turkey (and other mascots) – little kids either love him or are afraid of him. One little boy looked at Tom and immediately declared, “You’re just a real person.” Hmm – fun over for him, I guess.
I have awesome coworkers, have I mentioned that?
The event was a great opportunity to showcase Minnesota’s food industry and the importance of Minnesota’s farmers – and many of our agriculture friends were there at the game along with us, including Minnesota Pork and Minnesota Corn. (Check out Joe with Maizey, the MN Corn mascot, as well as the cool Oink Outings sunglasses. Joe, for the record, is too old to be ‘afraid’ of the mascots. He did, however, border on being embarrassed that his mom wanted pictures of him with the mascots.)
For me, this was also a chance to come home to my alma mater. I’m a University of Minnesota graduate and I loved showing a bit of the campus to Joe. We even drove by my old dorm, Comstock Hall, as well as some memorable college hangouts … which probably didn’t thrill Joe too much, but he was polite enough to pretend he had an interest. 😉
I think Joe looks pretty good in maroon and gold.
Even Teacher Man – who bleeds Iowa Hawkeye black and gold – had a good time. Seriously.
And did I mention I was actually on the sidelines of the field for a while in the second half of the game? (This little opportunity was thanks to the time my boss and I spent on the planning process for Food and Ag Day.) That was amazing. No, I mean UH-MAZING.
Now we’re back home, thrilled with the rain falling and watching the Iowa – Iowa State football game. Iowa looks like it’s headed toward a win, which will make Teacher Man very happy.
Gophers win. Hawkeyes win. Does it get any better than this on a college football Saturday? Not in our house!
