Our latest outing was quite an education for the Franks' fam. We had a great time and enjoyed the excitement of the big city of Atlanta, but at the same time it was somewhat of a shocker.
We attended our first Atlanta Braves game. The baseball game was fun but the Braves could do nothing to win it. I enjoy live baseball games because they are relaxing and family oriented. The Braves organization is huge down here and they really know how to entertain the crowd. We arrived early and watched some local rock bands and a very cool Atlanta college drum line group. They have a free kids interactive game arena as well as an alley full of carnival-style games. The Braves offer great food, too.
Now, for the other side of the story, the one I wish my children did not know about: we parked in the tailgater parking lot. It was the cheapest, so we chose it. We will never choose it again, though. Just walking across the lot was somewhat like escorting your kids out of a rated R movie. It literally looked like "Old School" with Will Ferrell. My children saw their first beer bong in use. They saw about a thousand half drunk girls that forgot to wear supportive undergarments. They saw hustlers running shell games, frat boys running beer-based beanbag games, and single young people cursing like characters in mafia movies. And, as luck would have it, we managed to get seated by about 30 of them at the game. At least they did not bother to stop tailgating until the fourth inning, otherwise we would have beat it out of there much sooner. Darby thought it was entertaining when they kept trying to play crowd games like "the wave", and how they would yell semi-inappropriate things to each other.
I took a few pics, but due to technical difficulties, they are not available right now. But if you read this whole thing, I'm sure you got the picture: don't take your sweet little girls to the old ball game. If I had impressionable teenage sons, I wouldn't take them there either because you would never be able to sear the images of the frat party from their brains.
Sorry to hear. It is crazy to take kids to a ballgame anymore. We went to a Royals game last year against the Indians and there was a fight because people were drinking and one guy had an Indians hat on. I had an Indians hat on, too, and I got harrassed (an 8 month pregnant woman at the time). It was ridiculous. That's why we loved the Redhawks with their family section. From now on, that is the only way we roll...family sections. Maybe we will have to stay in minor league stadiums in the Bible belt to get that, but it is a MUCH better experience.
ReplyDeletePS...my family had a family get together to meet Cole and it was just like a frat party. Complete with men in their 50s arguing that a muscle spasm was a stroke (embarrassingly...was my dad) and yelling at each other. My cousin saying very inappropriate things to me and trying to give her 8 year old beer, oh, and my uncle making passes at every (I mean every including me) woman there and talking about another one doing a pole dance. So, think about this...what if you had no choice but to expose your kids to this garbage? :-) Lucky us, we have very little. We have exit strategies, that's it. Oh, and there is lots of swearing and horrible things being said....
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