There’s a lot of that going around at home in New Orleans this week. Along with a whole lotta prayers for the Saints to win the NFC Championship game in the Superdome this Sunday.
I just wish my Mam-maw and Gramps were around to see it. They renewed their season tickets to the Saints games for years and got to know all the season ticket holders around them.
Gramps would go on and on to me about somebody that sounded like he should have been as close as family but I’d never heard of him. “But who are you talking about?” I’d ask. “Ohhh,” Gramps would say in his slow, Cajun way. “So and So sits two rows above us, three seats over to the left. In the DOME.”
If it was a home game, Mam-maw and Gramps left the house extra early so they could savor every minute in their beloved Dome. I always figured they were the first people there. Gramps liked to get his hot dog and jalapeño nachos before the line started. But the peanuts came to you.
If the game was out of town, Mam-maw and Gramps sat side by side in their recliners, rooting like mad. Mam-maw was the more emotional fan. Boy, did she love that Archie Manning. But she could come unglued during a bad play, slapping the arm of her chair and directing the team: “Throw it!” “Catch it!” “Get him!” “Run!” and lose her voice from yelling at the television set in a bad loss (which used to happen frequently).
Look at us now: We have a shot at the Super Bowl. I bet Mam-maw and Gramps will be watching on Sunday after all. From the best seats in the house—front row, with all the angels and (the other) saints. Geaux Saints!
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Colleen Hughes is the editor-in-chief of ANGELS ON EARTH magazine, a GUIDEPOSTS publication. She’s been at GUIDEPOSTS for 20 plus years, and lives in a Hudson River town with her two daughters and two cats.
