Part I: Hello from Big Orange Country

[shieldpacal]

We have an autumn sun angle here in Tennessee, the smell of college football is in the air, and everyone is getting excited about the first game with BGSU. We hope y'all are too. I was happy to find this BGSU football message board after camping out at BGSU Insider for several days and figuring out that no one was coming. I have already read most of the BGSU vs. Tennessee comments in the topics below and wanted to make a few comments of my own, some of them reflecting things that were said there. So, here we go with Part I (a primer on Local Nashville Culture).

1) Although I live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee now, I was born in the Nashville area and grew up there. So, if anyone needs any information about the Nashville area, I may be able to provide it better than most Tennessee fans. For example, if you would like to stay in a nice hotel in downtown Nashville and walk to the game, my hotels of preference would be as follows:

A) Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel

B) Double-Tree Hotel

C) Hermitage Hotel (Upscale and costly for wealthy BGSU alumni). The lobby is a favorite haunt for Jon Bon Jovi and other music stars in town to link up with other songwriters and musicians.

From these hotels you can walk across a bridge to the stadium area----maybe about 0.75 to 1 mile distance on mostly flat pavement.

2) Like most big cities, Nashville is a b*tch to drive in, and they have been doing downtown work on the three Interstate highways that go through town, resulting in a lot of detours and rerouting. My family got caught in a detour last summer, and we ended up in a place that was confusing and uncertain even to us. However, if you are used to driving in Cleveland or Columbus, it will probably seem like home to you. Personally, I would take an airplane and a taxi because I detest driving in big cities.

3) Nashville has a lot of really good eating places and nightlife all over the city. I have not been there in a long while, but some of the best was downtown within walking distance of the above hotels---particularly on lower Broadway at the Cumberland River and all up and down 2nd Avenue. These are old parts of town that have been refurbished to provide Nashville's version of something like the French Quarter in New Orleans---but obviously not The French Quarter.

4) Nashville is culturally and socially very different from East Tennessee and West Tennessee. Unlike the Knoxville area, there is no "Rocky Top Hillbilly Mystique" in Nashville. For political and geographic reasons that go back more than 150 years, Nashville was part of the Old South, whereas Knoxville never was. With some exceptions, the local people in Nashville are well-educated and erudite. When I worked in the Nashville tourist industry as a teenager in the 1970s, tourists from Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, etc. would try to buy a 10 cent postcard from me with a penny. When I said, "That will be nine more cents please," Leo would yell over to Evelyn, "Hey Evelyn!!! It's one of the educated ones!!!" Problem was that most all of us were the educated ones---and we still are. Nashville has more colleges and universities per square mile than just about any city in the nation. Fair warning. Do something like this "penny trick" in Nashville today, and someone is liable to take your head off. People are sensitive to this sort of thing from northern tourists, and numerous people carry concealed firearms by permit. People are much more friendly and kind in Nashville than they are in Knoxville. Treat them nice and with respect, and you will be treated like family. Ask for trouble and odds are high that you will get more of it than you expected. The Metropolitan Police Department (Mickey Metro) has a historical reputation for having policemen with nearly zero sense of humor. Think Ferguson, Missouri, and all the white people, yellow people, red people, and purple people are all black in the eyes of the police. You've been warned.

5) People in Nashville know that BGSU is not in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green is just a short drive up the highway from Nashville, and they know that the only university there is WKU.

6) Most University of Tennessee fans are nice and will treat you with love and respect. However, the BGSU fan below who said that most of the Tennessee fans are not UTK alumni is correct. Many fans are high school graduates or dropouts who roll in from rural areas with some money in their pockets. Some like to get drunk on Jack Daniel's or a rough equivalent and "Otis Campbell" their way to the game while yelling out obscenities at opposing team fans. They are usually few and far between. The best policy is to simply ignore them. Most fans will not treat you that way, and you will have a very pleasant football memory to take home.

7) University of Tennessee tailgating is some of the best in the South. Go to the tailgating areas, introduce yourself, and odds are high that you will be invited in for fun, food, and drink fit for a king and queen. Because like I said, Nashville people will make you feel like family.

8) Because of budget problems at The University of Tennessee, the UTK band may not be at the game. A recent policy that has been in place for a couple of years requires the band to stay home on road game Saturdays. I do not know if this is considered to be a road game. If it is, the band may not be there, which means that you will not hear Rocky Top, which is a real spoiler for many out-of-state fans who look forward to getting a real taste of Tennessee football game atmosphere like the one in Neyland Stadium.

(9) If anyone has any questions about the local Nashville culture, you can ask them here or send them by e-mail to [email protected].

(10) We love you guys and hope that everyone has a safe and happy trip down---and we will do our very best to help you feel at home.