The Penn Stater Magazine

Coming Back From Cali

January 5, 2009 at 4:41 pm Ryan Jones 1 comment

I was one of many Penn Staters who made the trip to California over New Year’s, though maybe the only one who didn’t go primarily for the Rose Bowl. I did go to the game — I had third-row seats directly behind the end zone, which didn’t offer much of a view, but did allow me to smell the grass, which was cool. Mostly, though, I went to visit family (my roots, not to mention a whole lot of relatives, remain in Southern California), eat some great fast food, and enjoy the weather.

Check, check, and check. A few highlights:

-Stopping for dinner at Pie N Burger, the neighborhood greasy spoon recommended by occasional Penn Stater contributor Paul Levine ’69 in his pre-Rose Bowl primer on PSU Live. Both the pie (banana cream) and burger (cheese-) were terrific — although, if I’d known the place was owned by an SC grad, I might have passed…

-Getting up early to attend the Rose Parade, where my four-year-old sat on my lap with a $7.00 program, keeping track of which floats were coming next (his favorite: the giant hat-tipping robot named Asimo), and waiting for the delayed B-2 bomber fly-over (it also flew over the stadium that afternoon — scary stuff). The let down, and another bad omen for the game, came when the Blue Band marched past without playing a note. I guess they were in between songs, but that didn’t make it any easier to rebut the SC fans nearby who mocked us for having a band that didn’t actually play.

Thanks to Brad Youtz '96 for the photo.

-Walking to the parade Thursday morning and seeing a couple of the Paternoville regulars, who I got to know while working on the feature in the magazine’s Jan/Feb 2009 issue. They’d apparently gotten a hotel near Disneyland, stayed up all night Wednesday, then taken a $100 cab ride to Pasadena early Thursday to catch the parade and the game. Between the lack of sleep and the game’s outcome, I imagine their Thursday night was not fun. Sorry guys.

-Most of the SC fans we encountered during the week were polite enough, but there were a few exchanges that, shall we say, reflected poorly on the broader Trojan fan base. A selection:

“Good luck Thursday. I’m predicting 52-0.” From some guy who felt compelled to slap me on the back while I had lunch with my family on Tuesday afternoon.

“You guys came all the way out here for nothing.” From a guy we passed walking through the pregame tailgates. A wasted trip? He obviously wasn’t aware of the weather back east.

“C’mon baby, check me out — I’m in a higher tax bracket!” My favorite, offered by a not-entirely-sober young man to my sister, with whom I was walking through the tailgates. Locals (particularly UCLA fans) like to joke that USC actually stands for University of Spoiled Children, a line that is itself sort of childish, though not entirely unfunny (nor, in this particular case, inaccurate).

For the record, my sister declined to check him out.

Yes, we booed the tunnel.

-The game itself didn’t offer much worth remembering (although the crowds trying to squeeze through the antiquated tunnels were hard to forget), but it was cool seeing Ki-Jana Carter ’95 waving a towel on the sidelines to rouse the crowd just before kick-off. Like anyone who was a Penn State fan back then, I’ll never forget Carter busting a huge touchdown run to open the scoring in the ’95 Rose Bowl. That game left Penn Staters frustrated at the injustice done by the pollsters. This game just left us humbled.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Famous Penn Staters, Penn State alumni, Penn State football, Penn Staters in the NFL, The Penn Stater magazine. Tags: Ki-Jana Carter, Paternoville, Paul Levine, Pie N Burger, Rose Bowl, USC Trojans.