Terry and I went to One Eyed Jacks to watch the Super Bowl along with hundreds of rabid Packer Backers. I had sketched this group before and they are a fun, boisterous crowd. Brian O’Halloran who organizes the crowd had asked me to come and sketch. A stone brick encased in a wooden box sat on a stool. Like everyone else, we rubbed the stone brick for luck. We got to the bar about an hour before kickoff and I immediately sat on the staging area and started to sketch. The fan that caught my eye had on jersey 52 and he had a flag that he would wave whenever the Packers scored. The little statue of a Packer player would do a happy dance at the press of a button. The tiny mechanized hips would thrust provocatively. There was a little boy seated next to me who was wound way too tight. He had tiny lights that he kept shining in my eyes and he kept jumping up and down off the stage. I ignored him. A very drunk fan got on stage next to the boy and stumbled sending the boy flying off the stage.
By the halftime show I was finished with my sketch. Terry had disappeared. I fired off 6 or so text messages but she didn’t respond. In the second half the Packers started making mistakes and giving up ground. Fans got quiet and serious as the score got dangerously close. One of the people in charge had to jump up on stage often as he tried to play audio clips with a failing remote control. The audio would fire up shouting, “Go Pack Go!” Everyone shouted along in unison. He then fired up a dance number that had everyone dancing with their hands in the air. Terry and I danced along.
The Packers won and the place went wild. Think of New Years Eve times one hundred. People were dancing on the bar and tables. A woman flashed her breasts. Two women were french kissing. Everyone was dancing and giving high fives. On the walk back to my truck, Terry gave a dollar to every homeless person she met. The drive home was strangely silent.