Homecoming 2007 Submitted by: Jim Ford - 10/16/07 2:52 pm

Homecoming 2007 Louisiana Tech Homecoming 2007 was this past weekend and I rarely miss going down to see everyone. It's been almost 10 years since I graduated college but remember it's my hometown, my Dad taught at Tech, my Mom was the director of campus ministry for Presbyterians, and I feel very much a part of the university. Jamie and I drove in late Friday night just in time to see Miranda Lambert play a show at Rabb's Steakhouse. If you've never been, Ruston may be a small town and Rabb's a local bar, but this place has it going on for big acts to perform during their off-season. Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Gary Allan, and many others have played there. They have a huge outdoor "county fair" type area everyone stands in drinking beer, singing, dancing, the works. We met up with my friends Jackson, Todd, Shannon, Kevin, and other old friends I hadn't seen it years. Miranda put on an awesome show! It ended up being a 2a.m. Huddle House hamburger and eggs night for us.... for my friend Todd, it was sleeping in the woods behind First Baptist and losing a $600 phone. Saturday morning recovery was hanging out at my friends Joe and Mary's place. We watched college football, drank MORE beer, and filled up on bratwursts, boudin, and chips. We were supposed to go to my brother's for a while but were too tired! We eventually headed to the stadium to tailgate with my ATO brothers. I was an active and officer back in college and still serve as the board of trustees president. There we had more beer, catfish, music, old stories, new stories, and general good time. When 6 o'clock rolled around we were supposed to head into the stadium to watch the game against New Mexico State. But we were all listening to the LSU game on radio and they went into triple overtime (LSU lost!!!!). The Tech game was half over and we were too tired to go in. At least Tech won though. Go Bulldogs! We went to eat dinner at my favorite restaurant, Pontchatoulas, to get some stuffed catfish, crawfish etouffe, more beer, and some great music and atmosphere. I've never seen a fight there in my life... but one happened! You get a bunch of drunk people together, it's bound to happen. It was right by our table and everyone jumped back to get out of the way. After the excitement died down we headed to the fraternity house to hang out for a while before heading back to Rabb's for some late night dancing. We capped off the night/morning with a soak in Joe and Mary's hot tub listening to old 80's music I brought down from my DJ Jim Ford collection. It was hard to get out of bed Sunday morning, all bleary-eyed and exhausted. But we packed up and stopped by my brother's place to visit his family and have a little cookout. He offered us a beer and ughh... we declined! I took Jamie on the 4-wheeler and showed her the pond and some of the woods. I was so tired driving back to Conway, I had to drink coffee, an energy drink, a no-doze pill, and had the radio and air-conditioner on full-blast trying to stay awake. Can you believe it? Thanks to Joe and Mary for putting us up. What a fun weekend, can't wait till next year!

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