Homecoming

State's homecoming is tomorr^H^H actually, later today. Honestly, it doesn't mean much to me. A (supposedly) easy football win and another chance to head back to campus.

There's also the fraternity's alumni cookout. Sadly, the past couple of years, I skipped out on it. Not this year. I plan on being there, no matter how late it is. (stupid 6:00 kickoff time)

Pig Pickin'. That's the name of it the event. The fraternity is Theta Tau, an engineering fraternity, so don't go thinking I could ever get into one of those social frats. A group of wanna-be engineers getting together to cook a pig and build a bonfire. Good times, man. Good times.

This year is the 20th Pig Pickin'. My first one was in '94. Excuse me while I whimper about how long ago that was. You deserve the story of Pig Pickin'.

It started as a homecoming party for alums. How did it get its name? Simple. The crew back in '88 said "let's find a field, smoke a pig and build a bonfire". Voila. Done, done and done. I think they hired someone to cater the pig cooking, but it was pure and simple: one pig, giant grill for smoking, pick off what you want.

Over the years, the formula remained the same. Someone came and cooked the pig, we built a bonfire and stayed out in the outskirts of town until ... whenever.

(except for that one dark year when it was catered; bad times, bad times)

Towards the end of my career at State, the venue changed but the formula remained the same. Smoke a pig (at times, in a homemade pit), construct a massive bonfire and have a good time. Lately, a band has been incorporated. That's cool. We tried it one year I was there, but they weren't too keen on playing outdoors.

I'm going to this year's Pig Pickin'. I don't think I'll be the oldest alum there. At least, I hope not. I've seen announcements on Facebook that some folks I was in school with are going.

If only I was able to camp out there.