Before I was struck down by a cold Saturday, I attended a Stamford High football game. Let me get my disillusioned whining out of the way: Stamford High football is nothing like the West Texas football on the TV show Friday Night Lights. There was not a huge crowd, or, at least, the crowd wasn't tightly packed because the stadium is pretty big. That's nice for personal space, but it makes it harder to get swept up in pure football madness. Reality: It was a good game. I was impressed with the QB, who threw several touchdown passes in the first half. Stamford ended up winning 38-27.
The only bad part about the game, besides the coach not being actor Kyle Chandler, was the high school kids. They were OK until halftime, when the opposing team went right through the middle of the bleachers to their locker rooms. The kids lined the bleacher railing by the locker room entry, screamed horrible things, and spit at the other team (photo below). It was a pretty nasty display. It made me worry about the pent-up aggression of Stamford teens. 
I'm pretty sure we never did that when I was in high school, but then again, we were in a chill, kinda rural Virginia county. In the FC, as you know, people are aggressive, stressed out, and angry. You don't have to drive around long enough to see people get ugly. I was surprised to see that at a football game though. Kids were shoving past me to go scream in the faces of the other team. I'm fine with a little "You suck!" but spitting is disgusting, and I really don't appreciate big high school boys bumping into me. I don't mean like, they brushed my shoulder. I mean like, I got kneed in the back by some kid who was in a huge hurry to go shout at other teenage boys.I'm sick of Stamford people pushing me around. I might have to start fighting people. No, I wouldn't do that. I will, though, think about asking the Stamford police for a special dispensation to carry and fire a paintball gun in public. Did I ever blog about that? I got that great idea in August. I'll blog more about it later, but it involves me being a trusted public servant who gets to shoot a paint gun
at say, cars who are rude to pedestrians, or people who kick my seat on purpose at the movie theatre. That way, I get the pleasure of physically assaulting people without actually hurting them, and mean people get the message: "That was mean. I saw you. I don't like you. This is your punishment. Don't do it again. Be nicer."It might seem like I have a little pent-up aggression of my own. But that paintball gun would solve it, and perhaps help bring about a more civil Stamford. Note: I'd make sure that the gun did not look like a real gun. It would look like a happy gun.
